Palestinians return body of Israeli teen killed in West Bank

The body of an Israeli teenager snatched by Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank was returned to his relatives Thursday, following intense talks to avoid an escalation of violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid had on Wednesday threatened tough reprisals against those who had taken the body of Tiran Fero, a 17-year-old Israeli Druze who was critically wounded in a car accident a day earlier.

The Israeli military said his body was released “as a result of the efforts of the security forces and in coordination with the Palestinian authorities.”

The abduction from a Jenin hospital was not immediately claimed by any particular group, but local sources told AFP that Palestinian militants were holding the body in the city’s refugee camp where various factions are present.

Israelis, or their mortal remains, have previously been abducted to be used as bargaining chips to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners or the return of the bodies of Palestinians seized by Israel.

“There were two ways to have this body returned,” an Israeli military official told journalists.

“One, through the Palestinian Authority.

And two, was going in for a military operation in the city, in the camp, that’s probably... very, very violent,” he added.