Abbas wants Netanyahu to condemn murder of Palestinian teenager

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemn the suspected retaliatory killing of an Arab teenager in occupied East Jerusalem early Wednesday.

"We demand Netanyahu condemn the kidnap and murder of a Palestinian teenager as we did condemn the abduction and killing of three Israeli settlers," Xinhua quoted Abbas as saying in a press statement published by official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Abbas also demanded that the perpetrators be brought to book, urging the Israeli government to stop the settlers' attacks as well as the ongoing military escalation which has left 15 Palestinians dead since the beginning of June.

Earlier Wednesday, Israeli police found the body of a Palestinian teenager a few hours after he was kidnapped in east Jerusalem, a media report said.

According to officials, the boy was seen being forced into a car in Jerusalem's Beit Hanina early Wednesday, BBC reported.

His body was found in a forest in Givat Shaul area in west Jerusalem.

According to Xinhua, the body was identified as that of 17-year-old Arab teenager Mohammed Abu Khder from Shuafat, an Arab neighbourhood in east Jerusalem.

The killing comes a day after funerals were held in the West Bank for the three Jewish seminary students whose bodies were found near the city of Hebron Monday, after they were abducted June 12.

Thousands of people attended the ceremony in Modein, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.

Netanyahu holds Hamas responsible for their deaths and has vowed to strike at the Palestinian Islamist group.