Jerusalem:
A missing Israeli teenager was found dead in the occupied West Bank on Saturday in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “heinous murder.”
The disappearance of 14-year-old Benjamin Achmel on Friday sparked a massive manhunt and raids on Palestinian villages.
“The heinous murder of a boy … is a serious crime,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
He said the Israeli army was “intensively pursuing those heinous murderers and all those who collaborated with them.”
Achimel went missing early Friday from the Malachi Ha Shalom outpost near the city of Ramallah.
Israeli army and security forces said his body was found nearby.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in West Bank settlements considered illegal under international law.
The incident comes at a time when tensions are already high due to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
After Achmel disappeared, Israeli security forces and hundreds of volunteers formed a search and rescue team.
On Friday afternoon, Jewish settlers involved in a manhunt raided the village of Mughail near Hashalom in Malachi, an AFP reporter reported.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Friday that at least one person was killed and 25 injured.
Overnight, the official Palestinian news agency reported that five Palestinians were wounded in another settler attack in the village of Abu Falah near Ramallah.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
