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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Police and Palestinian youths have clashed in East Jerusalem after the body of a Palestinian teenager was found in the city, sparking a police investigation into a possible link to the murder of three Israeli settlers.

Jerusalem has been tense since the bodies of the young Israeli settlers were found, and the police have beefed up their presence in Palestinian neighbourhoods.

An Al Jazeera journalist at the scene reported saw at least two Palestinians hit with rubber bullets during the pitched battles in Shuafat, a Palestinian neighbourhood.

Other sources said 30 people had been injured and that three Palestinian journalists had been hit with rubber bullets.

Israeli police told Al Jazeera that they received a call early on Wednesday about an alleged kidnapping in Shuafat. They said they had not established a link between the alleged kidnapping and the body, which was found in a Jerusalem forest.

Local media have identified the missing boy as 17-year-old Mohammed Hasan Abu Khdair.

Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, said that he "vigorously condemn[ed] the barbaric murder".

Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported that the body was "charred, and showed signs of violence".

'Death to the Arabs'

The body was discovered hours after Israel buried the three settlers, whose bodies were found in a valley outside Hebron earlier this week.

They disappeared on June 12 while hitchhiking home from a religious seminary in the occupied West Bank, setting off a weeks-long manhunt.

Nearly 50 people were arrested at right-wing demonstrations on Tuesday, during which protesters chanted "death to the Arabs" and tried to assault Palestinians.

The police said one man was jailed overnight for attacking a Palestinian worker in a fast-food restaurant in the city, and two other assaults were reported on Tuesday.

*Al Jazeera