Revenge killing indictment

The Israeli justice ministry indicted the three suspects on Thursday without revealing their names. The first is a 29-year-old from the West Bank settlement of Adam, while the other two are 16-year-olds, one from Jerusalem and the other from Beit Shemesh, a town west of Jerusalem. All three are from the same family.

Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, was forced into a car outside his home in East Jerusalem on July 2. His charred body was found hours later in a forest outside the city. The killing is suspected to be a revenge attack for the June 30 killing of three teenagers Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frankel, 16.

Police in earlier accounts had said that the three suspects confessed and reenacted the murder of Abu Khdeir.

Earlier crimes

The indictment revealed two of them first tried to abduct a seven-year-old in the neighborhood of Beit Hanina on July 1. The 29-year-old suspect drove through the neighborhood with the minor in the back of his car, who got out when they saw a mother walking with her children in the street.

One of the 16-year-old suspects sneaked up behind one of the children, put his arm around his throat and tried to drag him to the car, but the mother intervened when the boy started screaming. The suspect hit her on the face, kicked her to the ground and started beating her until fleeing in a car when a passerby came to the scene. The two later that evening tried to set cars alight in another East Jerusalem neighborhood.

The next day, a second 16-year-old joined them and the embarked on a "manhunt that lasted several hours, during which they abducted and cruelly murdered the innocent minor Mohammed Abu Khdeir, may he rest in peace, for the sole and only reason of him being Arab," the indictment said.

Gruesome murder

Abu Khdeir was sitting outside his home in East Jerusalem when he was approached by the three suspects. They pretended to ask for directions, but then dragged Abu Khdeir inside their car when he became suspicious and started calling friends.

Abu Khdeir struggled violently with the suspects, who overpowered him in the back seat, beating and strangling him until he began to lose consciousness. They then drove to the forest, where the main 29-year-old suspect hit Abu Khdeir on the head twice and said "this is for the Fogel family," and "this is for Shalhevet Pas," a reference to the Israeli victims of the Palestinian attacks.

The main suspect then dragged Abu Khdeir out of the car, kicked him three times while on the ground and declared: "This is for Eyal. This is for Gilad, this is for Naftali."

The two 16-year-olds poured gasoline on Abu Khdeir while he was still alive but unconscious and the 29-year-old set him alight.

Public outrage

"The indictment that was filed details a grave and shocking act," perpetrated against a background of racism, against an innocent teenager," Israel's attorney general was quoted as saying in the indictment. "The attorney general wishes to express his deep sorrow over this cruel act that counters all basic human morals."

Abu Khdeir's murder led to days of violent protest in east Jerusalem that spread to other Arab towns across Israel. The unrest later sparked a new conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The Israeli military's military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 230 Palestinians so far. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that as many as 80 percent of the Palestinians killed in the attacks thus far have been civilians.

One Israeli has been killed by rocket fire from Gaza.

dr/ipj (dpa, AFP)