Israel holding Jewish seminary students over Palestinian woman's killing

Israel has arrested five Jewish seminary students in the occupied West Bank in connection with a rock attack on a Palestinian car that killed a woman, the Israeli domestic intelligence service said on Sunday.

The detainees “are suspected of grave terrorist offenses including murder”, the Shin Bet service said in a statement after a court order limiting media coverage of the December 30 arrests was lifted.

Aisha Al-Rabi, 47, suffered a fatal head wound from a rock thrown at her car near the Palestinian city of Nablus on October 12.

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The Shin Bet said the five detainees, who it did not name, attend a seminary in Rehelim, a neighbouring Jewish settlement. They are all under the age of 18 and have not been formally charged.

Lawyers for the five have said their clients were being held in isolation in a bid by the Shin Bet to force false confessions. The Shin Bet said in its statement the detainees had been questioned in accordance with the law.

The West Bank sees frequent friction between Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, and Israel’s settlers, some of whom identify with radical Jewish groups.