Palestinians clash with Israeli police in Jerusalem after body is found

July 2, 2014: An Israeli police officer gestures in the Jerusalem Forest where a body was found.Reuters

Israeli police on Wednesday found the body of a Palestinian teen in a forest west of Jerusalem, sparking clashes with police and fears that the crime may have been a revenge attack for the murder of three Israeli teens who were discovered in the West Bank earlier this week.

Hundreds of angry youths blocked the Holy City's light rail and threw stones at Israeli security forces, who responded with rubber bullets, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says Palestinians hurled stones at forces who responded with tear gas. Security was heightened around the city.

Rosenfeld says police received reports Wednesday that an Arab teen was forced into a car. A body was later found, but police have not yet established whether the two incidents are related.

There was no immediate word on casualties resulting from the clashes.

The discovery comes after mobs of Israeli extremists protested in Jerusalem on Tuesday, calling for revenge for the murder of the Israeli teens, Haaretz reported. Five Palestinians were attacked, two of whom required medical treatment, and 50 people were arrested after violent confrontations with police in the capital's center for several hours.

On Tuesday, tens of thousands of mourners converged in central Israel for a funeral service for three kidnapped Israeli teenagers.

The three young men were buried side by side in the central Israeli town of Modiin. Mourners arrived in large convoys of buses arranged for the ceremony.

The bodies of the youths -- including one with U.S. citizenship -- were found Monday just north of Hebron in a shallow grave in an open field in the village of Halhul, and led to outpourings of grief and rage in the Jewish State.

Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship, disappeared on June 12 while hitchhiking home.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres eulogized the teens at the joint funeral, located near the boys’ family homes, according to the Jerusalem Post.

"Today has spontaneously become a national day of mourning,” Netanyahu said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click here to read more from Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post.