The uncle of Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, the 16-year-old who was found dead in the Jerusalem Forest earlier this morning, tells The Times of Israel that witnesses saw Abu Khdeir being forced into a car, a gray Hyundai, and were able to identify the kidnappers as Jews.
The uncle, Mahmoud, says that when the the teen was taken, at 4 a.m., there were plenty of bystanders around who witnessed the event and even tried to chase after the car in which he was driven away from his East Jerusalem neighborhood.
Friends and relatives of Muhammad Abu Khader, the Palestinian teen found dead in the Jerusalem Forest, mourn in the family home in Shuafat, East Jerusalem, on July 2, 2014 (photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90)
Mahmoud says that there is “no doubt in his mind” that his nephew was kidnapped and murdered in retribution for the killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.
He says that the kidnapping was reported to the police immediately, and that the Hyundai and the kidnappers within could have been located quickly had the police responded right away.
The mother of Muhammad Abu Khader (L), a Palestinian teen found dead in the Jerusalem Forest, speaks with media in the family home in Shuafat, East Jerusalem, on July 2, 2014 (photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90)
He adds that video footage documenting the kidnapping has been sent to the police, and according to Army Radio, said that the same gray Hyundai was spotted in the area yesterday and that its passengers had tried to kidnap a child.
— Avi Issacharoff
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Wednesday, July 2, 2014
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