A group of Palestinian villagers in northern Samaria (the West Bank) on Wednesday night made a false “911” call to Israeli Police, saying that a youth had been abducted by “Israeli settlers.”

In the call, a resident of the village of Marda, near Tapuach Junction, alleged that two Jews had forced a youth into a vehicle and fled off, according to Israel’s Ma’ariv daily.

In immediate response, the local Israel Defense Forces battalion commander closed off several local traffic arteries, including the heavily-used junction, in order to head off the “captors'” escape.

Troops carefully questioned motorists and inspected vehicles in the area in order to catch the “fleeing” vehicle, tying up traffic in the vicinity.

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In the end, the would-be kidnapping was a false alarm: security forces clarified that the youth to which the callers referred had been caught throwing stones at Israeli vehicles, and was taken away in a police vehicle for questioning.

The report comes in the wake of massive Arab rioting in Jerusalem over the killing and burning of the body of an Arab youth, discovered in a forest on the outskirts of the city Wednesday morning.

Investigators into the circumstances surrounding the death of a 16-year-old Muhammed Abu Knudair are not ruling out criminal and family disputes, an Israel Police spokesman told The Algemeiner.

“We’re looking into a number of different directions,” Mickey Rosenfeld said.

“There’s the possibility that the background to the incident is criminal,” as well as a family-related issue, according to Rosenfeld.

“Police are continuing to look for suspects as well as the vehicle that fled the scene,” he noted, but added that none had been detained.

However, relatives of Abu Knudair claimed that Israelis were responsible for the killing.

“‘Settlers have killed our child,'” they told Ma’ariv‘s Asaf Gabor.

“But after a few questions it became clear that this is based on evidence of friends and a video clip of 10 seconds that barely shows anything,” Gabor said, commenting on the conflicting narratives.

“‘They wore skullcaps?’ I asked the relatives. They answered ‘no.'”

“‘They had beards, tzitzit?'”

“‘No.'”

“‘What are settlers?’ I asked, and I received unclear answers.”

“‘They fled to Jerusalem, then they are settlers,'” the relatives said.