Alleged Jerusalem revenge attack

The death of a Palestinian teen on Wednesday raised fears of a possible revenge attack, just days after Israeli security forces located the bodies of three teenagers who had been missing in the West Bank for some two weeks.

Israeli army radio reported that the Palestinian youth had been kidnapped in east Jerusalem. Reuters news agency corroborated the information with Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld.

A young man was "pulled into a vehicle and possibly kidnapped," Rosenfeld said.

"Police [later] discovered a body in the Jerusalem forest and were looking to see if there was a connection between the missing youth and the body that was found," the police spokesperson added.

The Israeli government has vowed to make Islamist group Hamas "pay" for the deadly abduction. However, the extremist faction - which recently reconciled with the West Bank's ruling government under Fatah - has not claimed responsibility for the murders.

UN, US weigh in

The killings came just months after Israeli and Palestinian officials failed to meet a deadline for establishing peace plan negotiations. The diplomatic stalemate worsened when the Palestinian government established a unity government with Hamas, a decision condemned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Tuesday, both the UN Security Council and the White House expressed concern that the outrage over the teen deaths could exinguish any hope of continuing the diplomatic process.

The UN Security Council called for justice to be served, saying the acts were "heinous crime." However it joined in the White House's call for the two governments to cooperate with each other.

"There is an important security relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority... We hope that that spirit of cooperation, even in the midst of this very difficult time, will continue," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

Netanyahu has seized on the teenagers' deaths to demand that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas annul a reconciliation deal he reached with Hamas.

The Israeli daily Haaretz has reported that Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon proposed building a new settlement in the West Bank in memory of the teenagers. Economy Minister Naftali Bennett has proposed a large-scale military operation in Gaza and to begin using the death penalty against Palestinians convicted of violent crimes.

kms/rc (AFP, Reuters, dpa)