Palestinians carry the body of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair during his funeral in Shuafat, an Arab suburb of Jerusalem July 4, 2014.. 
 
 RAMALLAH West Bank Violent protests sparked by the abduction and killing of a Palestinian teenager spread to Arab villages in Israel on Saturday, presenting a new challenge to the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 
 
 Israel has stayed silent on the investigation into the death of an East Jerusalem youth who Palestinians believe was kidnapped and killed by far-right Jews, but the Palestinian attorney-general was reported as saying he had been burned alive. 
 
 "The direct cause of death was burns as a result of fire and its complications," Mohammed Al-A'wewy was quoted as saying by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa late on Friday. 
 
 Israeli-Palestinian tensions have risen sharply since three Israeli teens were kidnapped on June 12 and later found dead in the occupied West Bank. 
 
 This was followed on Wednesday by the kidnapping of Mohammed Abu Khudair, 16, in his neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. His charred body was found hours later in a forest on the edge of the city. 
 
 Saber Al-Aloul, the director of the Palestinian forensic institute, attended the autopsy, which was carried out by Israeli doctors. 
 
 Al-A'wewy said Al-Aloul had reported soot had been found in Khudair's respiratory canal, which meant that "the boy had inhaled this material while he was burnt alive." 
 
 Burns covered 90 percent of the body and there was a cut to the head. Samples such as fluids and tissue were taken for more lab examinations to complete the legal medical report. 
 
 At Khudair's funeral on Friday, furious Palestinians chanted "Intifada! Intifada," calling for a new uprising against Israel. Stones thrown at Israeli police were met by tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets in one of the most highly charged displays of enmity in Jerusalem in years. 
 
 At least one Palestinian was hurt in confrontations in the city of Nablus overnight, medical staff said. 
 
 STONE AND FIREBOMB ATTACKS 
 
 The protests spread on Saturday to normally calm Israeli Arab areas, mainly along roads in the centre and north of the country where protesters threw stones and firebombs at passing cars. Dozens were arrested in these clashes, a police spokeswoman said. 
 
 A Jewish driver was forced from his vehicle and told to flee before his car was burned at one location while at another, a woman suffered light injuries from rocks thrown at her car. 
 
 Palestinian officials trying to calm tensions have said they would prevent any intifada, or uprising, and seek a solution to the crisis that began when the three Israeli teens were kidnapped. 
 
 The discovery of the bodies of the three Jewish seminary students on Monday prompted an outpouring of national grief in Israel. 
 
 Many Palestinians, including President Mahmoud Abbas, assert that Khudair was the victim of far-right Jews incensed at the Israeli deaths. 
 
 Netanyahu has called Abu Khudair's killing "loathsome" and ordered a swift police investigation. 
 
 Israeli authorities said they did not yet know whether Abu Khudair was indeed the victim of a hate crime. 
 
 Tensions also persisted on Saturday along the frontier with the Gaza Strip, where Israeli warplanes bombed three Hamas targets in response to mortar and rocket fire at Israel. Two Palestinian policemen were hurt in a later air strike, Gaza hospital officials said. 
 
 There were no reported casualties in the air raids or from the 15 rockets fired at Israel, one of which was shot down by Israel's Iron Dome interceptor system over Beersheba, the first time a rocket has been launched at the major city since 2012. 
 
 Israel mobilised ground forces on Thursday along the Gaza frontier in a threat to invade if rocket fire from the enclave did not stop. Egypt, a bordering country, has tried to mediate a truce to prevent an escalation of these hostilities. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) ||||| JERUSALEM The body of an abducted Palestinian youth was found in Jerusalem on Wednesday, raising suspicions he had been killed by Israelis avenging the deaths of three abducted Jewish teens. 
 
 News of the discovery of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair, who was last seen being bundled into a van earlier in the day, triggered clashes between rock-throwing Palestinians and Israeli police in the city. 
 
 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Jewish settlers of killing Abu Khudair and demanded that Israel "mete out the strongest punishment against the murderers if it truly wants peace". 
 
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged police "to swiftly investigate who was behind the loathsome murder and its motive". He called on all sides "not to take the law into their own hands". 
 
 Police said they had found a body in the wooded outskirts of Jerusalem. Abu Khudair's father told Reuters the force had told him the body was his son. 
 
 An Israeli security source said Israel suspected the youth had been kidnapped and murdered, possibly in retribution for the killings of the Israeli teens. Their bodies were discovered on Monday, nearly three weeks after they were abducted in the occupied West Bank. 
 
 Israel says Palestinian Hamas militants killed them. The Islamist group has neither confirmed nor denied the allegation. 
 
 The White House condemned the killing of Abu Khudair and called on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to "take all necessary steps to prevent an atmosphere of revenge and retribution." 
 
 Netanyahu convened his security cabinet later on Wednesday as violence also flared up across the Israel-Gaza border, with Palestinians firing at least a dozen rockets and mortars, and Israel's military carrying out an air strike. 
 
 WHITE VAN 
 
 Abu Khudair's cousin said the 16-year-old was grabbed off the street after leaving his home in Jerusalem's Arab neighbourhood of Shuafat to go to morning prayers with friends. 
 
 "Somebody ran into the house to say one of the boys had been dragged into a white van, so (Mohammed's) mother called the police," the cousin, Naima, said. 
 
 The abduction came a day after the three Jewish seminary students - Gil-Ad Shaer and U.S.-Israeli national Naftali Fraenkel, both 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19 - were buried in a funeral attended by tens of thousands of mourners. 
 
 While the teenagers were laid to rest in the city of Modi'in, several hundreds Israeli demonstrators, some chanting "Death to Arabs", blocked the main entrance to Jerusalem. 
 
 Cries for revenge have echoed throughout the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 
 
 They can be heard at the emotionally charged funerals of Palestinians killed by Israel, and the phrase "May God avenge his death" is often invoked at the burials of Israelis slain by Palestinians. 
 
 But deadly Israeli vigilante attacks, in declared retribution for Palestinian assaults, have been rare in recent years. 
 
 More common are the so-called "price tag" incidents in which mosques and Palestinian property are torched or damaged - originally a reference by ultra-nationalist Jews to making the government "pay" for any curbs on Jewish settlement on land Palestinians seek for a state. 
 
 Hebrew graffiti found on a building in the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday read: "Price tag, Jewish revenge." 
 
 Tensions were high in the West Bank, where around 40 Palestinians were arrested in raids on Tuesday, the latest in a campaign by Israel to cripple Hamas there. 
 
 Four people were wounded by live bullets early on Wednesday in an Israeli raid in the Palestinian city of Jenin. 
 
 Near Hebron, Israeli forces destroyed the home of a Palestinian arrested on charges of shooting dead an off-duty police officer in the West Bank in April. 
 
 Israel, which suspended the demolition policy in 2005 as a Palestinian uprising waned, says destroying the homes of Palestinians involved in attacks on Israelis has a deterrent effect. Rights groups have condemned the practice as collective punishment. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Ammar Awad, Ori Lewis, Maayan Lubell and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Noah Browning; Editing by Larry King) ||||| Media caption Mohammed Abu Khdair's mother: "My son wasn't answering" 
 
 The funeral of a Palestinian teenager abducted and killed in Jerusalem has been delayed so that a post-mortem examination can be completed. 
 
 Mohammed Abu Khdair's father says he hopes his son's burial can still take place on Thursday. 
 
 The 17-year-old's murder raised tensions amid claims it was in revenge for the killing of three Israeli youths. 
 
 Meanwhile, Israel has begun reinforcing forces on its border with Gaza. 
 
 Israel says the move, which follows air strikes against the Palestinian territory early on Thursday that injured 10 Palestinians, is part of its response to mortar and rocket fire from Palestinian militants. 
 
 Barrages struck two homes in the southern Israeli border town of Sderot overnight. There were no reports of injuries. 
 
 Image copyright AFP 
 
 Analysis: Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem 
 
 Israel's air attacks on Gaza should not be seen as part of any action it may be planning to take against Hamas for the kidnapping and murder of the three young Israelis buried earlier this week. 
 
 They were an immediate response to a wave of attacks from Gaza in which rockets and mortars were fired at southern Israel. 
 
 Israeli military sources say the targets were weapons manufacturing facilities and training sites used by [the militant groups] Hamas and Islamic Jihad. 
 
 But the exchange of fire comes at a time of rising tension in Israel and the occupied territories. 
 
 'Father detained' 
 
 The funeral of Mohammed Abu Khdair had been due to take place after noon prayers at about 13:00 local time (10:00 GMT). 
 
 As the time for the burial approached, the family appeared to accuse the Israeli authorities of holding the body unnecessarily - something denied by police. 
 
 Later, Mohammed Abu Khdair's father, Hussein Abu Khdair, said he had been told a post-mortem examination was still taking place. Relatives nevertheless hoped the funeral could take place on Thursday, he added. 
 
 Media caption Two cousins of Mohammed Abu Khdair spoke to Yolande Knell about his death 
 
 The post-mortem, which is being conducted by Palestinian and Israeli doctors, is reported to be taking longer than expected because the body was burnt. 
 
 In another development, Hussein Abu Khdair said he was held by police for eight hours and put under pressure to say his son's killing was unlikely to be an attack to avenge the deaths of the Israeli youths. Israeli police have denied this. 
 
 One of the dead teenager's cousins, Dimah Abu Khdeir, said of Israelis: "They don't care about us... We're not considered citizens. We're garbage. They killed us." 
 
 There are fears the funeral, when it does take place, will be followed by more clashes like those which erupted outside the teenager's home on Wednesday. Then, protesters threw stones at police officers, who responded by firing sound bombs, tear gas and rubber bullets. 
 
 Image caption The Palestinian boy's father said he was told a post-mortem examination of his son's body was still taking place 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Israel says its air strikes against targets in Gaza on Thursday were in response to Palestinian militant mortar attacks 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Two homes were damaged by Palestinian rocket fire in the southern Israeli town of Sderot 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption The murder of Mohammed Abu Khdair sparked protests in East Jerusalem on Wednesday 
 
 The Palestinian boy was seen being forced into a car in Shufat, East Jerusalem, early on Wednesday. 
 
 His body was later found, bearing marks of violence, in West Jerusalem. 
 
 Media caption Murdered Israeli teen's uncle: "Violence is not the path" 
 
 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Jewish settlers of killing the boy, calling for the "strongest punishment against the murderers". 
 
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the murder was "despicable" and that he had ordered police to work "as quickly as possible to find out who was behind the heinous murder of the youth". 
 
 Israeli and Palestinian media reaction 
 
 Ben-Dror Yemini in mass circulation Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot: "The Jewish majority hope, pray, that Jews did not murder the youth from Shufat... but there is a fear that we are in denial...that a cancer of racist right is nesting among us." 
 
 Dan Margalit in free, pro-Netanyahu Yisrael Hayom: ""Certainly every decent Israeli wants to get rid of the murderers of Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaer. There is a blood debt with the two Palestinians who murdered them...the IDF and the Shabak must hunt them, not wild groups who operate outside public life." 
 
 Pro-Fatah Palestinian daily Al-Quds: "We say once again that peace is the only way leading to the suspension of violence, fanaticism and tension." 
 
 Dr Isam Shawir in Hamas-run, Gaza-based Filastin: "The threats made by the occupation are worthless and do not scare Hamas, particularly in the Gaza Strip." 
 
 The family of one of the three murdered Israeli teenagers also issued a statement condemning the latest killing. 
 
 "If the Arab youth was murdered because of nationalistic motives, then this is a horrible and horrendous act," the statement from the family of Naftali Frenkel said. 
 
 Israeli police have urged caution over the motives for the killing, saying they are still investigating. 
 
 The bodies of the three Jewish seminary students were found near the city of Hebron on Monday, two-and-a-half weeks after they were abducted. Their funerals took place on Tuesday.
– Mohammed Abu Khudair was heading to morning prayers at 4am yesterday when neighbors saw him forced into a van in east Jerusalem, his father says. They called his cell phone but "my son wasn't answering," his mother adds, per the BBC. An hour later, the Palestinian teen was found dead in an apparent revenge killing, so burned beyond recognition that DNA samples were needed to confirm his identify, father Hussein Abu Khudair tells NBC News, adding, per Time, "The settlers killed my son, they kidnapped him and killed him." More developments: The teen's funeral, originally set for today, has been delayed as authorities perform an autopsy, his father says. Khudair adds he doesn't have faith in the Israeli police "because we're Arab" and says young Jews pulled a 9-year-old boy away from his mother after Mohammed's death. Though he was saved, "he was scratched," Khudair says. "They grabbed him by his neck." Another relative of Mohammed adds "the hatred has increased" instantly in the family's neighborhood. "I've never seen such racism, even in the first and second intifada," he tells the New York Times. "We are entering a very dark time." Meanwhile, police are investigating what could be a third kidnapping after a girl called police from northern Israel. "She said that she was abducted and then the line went dead," an Israeli spokesman tells the Times. "We're searching the area. Helicopters are trying to track. We'll see what's going on there." In response to mortar and rocket attacks from Gaza, "the Israeli Air Force attacked 15 terror sites in Gaza early Thursday," an Israel Defense Forces official notes. "The targets included weapons manufacturing sites as well as training facilities." Some 10 Palestinians were reportedly injured.