REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JERUSALEM - Israel said its aircraft had attacked 10 sites in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in response to rocket strikes. Yet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled that broader action in the Palestinian enclave was not imminent.
In remarks to his cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu pledged "to do whatever is necessary" to restore quiet to southern Israeli communities that have come under rocket attack. But he also cautioned against any rush toward wider confrontation with the Hamas Islamist group, the dominant force in the Gaza Strip.
Tensions were also high in Arab towns and villages in northern Israel and in East Jerusalem, after the kidnap and killing of a 16-year-old Palestinian on Wednesday. An autopsy showed he had been burned alive, the Palestinian attorney-general said.
Israel has arrested some suspects in the case, Israeli media reported on Sunday. Palestinians believe the teen was the victim of right-wing Jews avenging the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers who disappeared while hitchhiking in the occupied West Bank on June 12 and whose bodies were found on Monday.
Police said East Jerusalem and flashpoints in Israel's Arab community in the north were quiet on Sunday after protesters throwing stones and burning tyres clashed with Israeli police late on Saturday.
Palestinian-American Tariq Khdeir (15 years), a cousin of the Palestinian teen, was arrested by Israeli border policemen, who his family said beat him severely, during a protest on Thursday in East Jerusalem. The United States has called for an investigation.
An Israeli court on Sunday ordered Khdeir released from jail and placed under house arrest for nine days. His mother said the family planned to return to Tampa, Florida on July 16.