Tensions escalated in Israel on Saturday following reports that a Palestinian teenager had been burned alive in retaliation for the deaths of three Israeli youths last month.
An autopsy revealed that Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, 16, had soot in his airways, according to the Palestinian attorney general, Mohammed al-A’wewy.
{mosads}“It was obvious through autopsy that there was black smoke on the breathing airways, windpipes and in the two lungs,” al-A’wewy said in a statement on his office’s website. “This is proof of inhalation of this material during the torch, while he was alive.”
Israeli doctors performed the autopsy with a Palestinian coroner in the room, according to the New York Times.
Reacting to the new autopsy results, Palestinian protesters took to the streets in Jerusalem and beyond, according to various reports.
Israeli police arrested 20 people in Jerusalem and 12 more in clashes in the north, the Washington Post reported, citing a police spokesman.
Muhammad was abducted in the early hours of Wednesday in East Jerusalem, as he was waiting for morning prayers. His body was found in a forest west of the city shortly afterwards.
Although Israeli law enforcers have made no arrests or named a motive, it’s widely thought that Muhammad was killed in revenge for the murder of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, three Israeli youths who disappeared June 12 in the West Bank and were found dead almost three weeks later.
Fraenkel, Shaar and Yifrach were buried on Tuesday; Muhammad was buried Friday. Both ceremonies drew thousands of mourners.