The body transferred by the Palestinian Authority to Israel on Tuesday morning was that of an 18-year-old Israeli from occupied Jerusalem, reported Israel Radio.
The young man's father and his employer identified the body after police had spent several hours trying to ascertain the identity of the body.
Stab and gunshot wounds were found on the body. After discovering the corpse, Palestinian officials transferred it to members of the Israeli security coordination apparatus in the Ramallah area, said the radio.
Israeli security forces believe the young man, whose body was discovered near the West Bank settlement of Psagot, adjacent to Ramallah, was likely killed in Area A, which is under full Palestinian control, and then moved to an area under Israeli control.
The report said the teen was on his way to visit his girlfriend.
Israeli President Moshe Katzav told Israel Radio that the boy was on his way to make an "innocent, routine" visit and that he had been kidnapped and murdered.
"There is absolutely no humanity beating in their hearts," he told the radio.
Since the September 2000 eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, the media has reported that Palestinians have killed at least 125 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to the UK newspaper The Guardian, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 510 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to an Amnesty International report, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children. In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
