text: A Palestinian teen was reportedly abducted and killed near his home in Jerusalem on Wednesday, apparently in revenge for the deaths of three kidnapped Jewish Israelis buried just hours earlier. 
   
   The crime, which brought strong condemnations from the Obama Administration and European officials, threatened to throw the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians beyond the control of leaders who were calculating how to respond to the last outrage without further escalating tensions on the ground. But in the space of a few hours, the mood shifted from communal grief over the deaths of the young Israelis to fears of ascending communal violence. 
   
   The abduction followed a night of mayhem by Jewish extremists, about 200 of whom marched through Jerusalem chanting “Death to the Arabs” and assaulting Arab Israelis found on the streets. A few hours later, shortly before 4 a.m., Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, 16, was forced into a car by two men on a sidewalk not far from his home in Shuafat, a Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem. An hour later police discovered a charred body in a forest on the outskirts of the city. Family members said it was Muhammad, who had been on his way to dawn prayers, as was customary during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. 
   
   “The settlers killed my son, they kidnapped him and killed him,” his father, Hussein Saed Abu Khdeir, told TIME after returning from Jerusalem’s main police station. 
   
   He reached for his Samsung smartphone, tapped the screen and pulled up a photo of two young men on a sidewalk. He said the image had been taken from a surveillance camera at a candy store around the corner that recorded the abduction. 
   
   “These are the ones who kidnapped my son,” he said. 
   
   A few yards away, dozens of young men flung stones at Israeli riot police assembled two blocks downhill. The riot began shortly after the body was discovered, and went on all day. Police fired foam-tipped bullets and sound grenades. Youths twirled slingshots and the occasional Molotov cocktail. The pavement between the two sides might have been gravel, so littered was it with stones. 
   
   A row of ambulances stood by a hundred feet behind the tin barricades protesters had erected beside the building containing the Khdeirs’ home. As an ambulance driver reported that more than 60 people had been wounded by 5 p.m., another injured youth arrived, slung across the shoulders of a heavyset man in an orange medic’s vest. 
   
   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement urging both sides “not to take the law into your own hands” and promising to “uncover quickly who is behind this despicable murder and what motivated it.” A relative of one of the Jewish Israeli teens, Naftali Fraenkel, who also held U.S. citizenship, was quoted as saying “If a young Arab man was murdered for nationalistic reasons then it is a horrifying and disgusting act. There is no distinguishing blood from blood. Murder is murder, whatever the nationality or age may be. There is no justification, no forgiveness and no atonement for any murder.” 
   
   But the distance between the sides grows with each incident. At the political level, Palestinian leaders leaped at the opportunity to turn the tables on Israel, which used the teens’ disappearance as a pretense to arrest more than 400 West Bank activists, most of them with the militant Islamist group Hamas that Netanyahu blames for the teens’ deaths. 
   
   “Israel bears full responsibility for this incident,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement, which concluded with a threat to drag Israel before U.N. courts, the most militant course Abbas has been willing to chart. “The Palestinian leadership will continue its discussions following this escalation, including joining international organizations.” 
   
   On the ground, pessimism ruled. Hussein Abu Khdeir was asked if he had faith in the Israeli police he had spent most of the day with. “No,” he said. Why not? “Because we’re Arab.” 
   
   “They are not concerned,” volunteered Yousef Mkhemer, a community activist seated across the crowded porch. Alluding to Netanyahu’s historic support for Jewish settlements on the West Bank, he said, “The boss of the settlers is the boss of the government. So he cannot shame himself.” 
   
   The distrust runs beyond political leader, however, to alternate realities. Many if not most Palestinians refuse to say that the three Israeli teens were abducted at all. Their disappearance is widely regarded as an excuse to force apart the newly minted unity government supported by both Hamas and Abbas’ secular Fatah party — a reconciliation polls show has been enthusiastically embraced by Palestinians, but condemned by Netanyahu, who has repeatedly invoked the teens’ kidnapping as reason for dismembering it. 
   
   “It’s a lie,” said Amjad Dweik, 18, of the Israeli teens’ kidnapping and murder. “As soon as the two parties Fatah and Hamas began the reconciliation, Israel began to make up all kinds of things to ruin the unit.” Hussein Abu Khdeir agreed: “They did it,” he said, referring to Israel. 
   
   In the next breath, the skeptics describe the abduction of Muhammad as vigilante vengeance for the death of the Jewish teens. Residents say young Jewish Israelis had been stalking Shuafat since the bodies were discovered on Monday. Dweik and others spoke of a boy of 9 pulled away from his mother by young Jews a day earlier on the same street where Muhammad was taken. The boy was saved, they say, when passersby intervened. 
   
   “He was scratched,” said Hussein Abu Khdeir, referring to the child, who local residents say had been holding his mother’s hand. “They grabbed him by his neck.” 
   
   His own son’s abduction and apparent death were likewise revenge. 
   
   “Yes, of course,” he said. “There’s no other explanation.” ||||| 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. ||||| The body of a slain Palestinian teen was burned beyond recognition, forcing his parents to provide DNA samples to confirm his identity, his father told NBC News on Wednesday. Hussein Abu Khader criticized police for responding too slowly to his report that his 17-year-old son Mohammed had been seen being bundled into a van in east Jerusalem on Tuesday, and for not launching a manhunt immediately. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that he has asked for a priority investigation and vowed that the culprits will be punished severely, a State Department spokeswoman said. 
   
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   The father said Mohammed's cellphone rang for 30 minutes after neighbors saw him being forced into the vehicle as the teen headed to a mosque for morning prayers at 4 a.m. Speculation is swirling that the Palestinian teen was kidnapped and murdered in retribution for the killings of three Israeli teens, whose bodies were found on Monday, nearly three weeks after they were abducted in the occupied West Bank. Israel says Palestinian Hamas militants killed them, although the Islamist group has not taken responsibility. 
   
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   July 2, 2014 | Shufat, Occupied East Jerusalem. Spray painted graffiti under a Jerusalem Municipality… http://t.co/cO6Zu1gOGu — Ayman Mohyeldin (@AymanM) July 2, 2014 
   
   - Ayman Mohyeldin, with Reuters
target: – 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.