- NEW: Kerry: Vengeance could destabilize "an already explosive and emotional situation"
- NEW: Crowds rally against racism in Jerusalem
- PM Netanyahu calls for speedy investigation to find out "who is behind this despicable murder"
- Funerals were held Tuesday for three Israeli teenagers slain in the West Bank
Jerusalem (CNN) -- The discovery of a Palestinian teen's body in Jerusalem early Wednesday triggered clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, further inflaming tensions that spiked this week with the discovery of the bodies of three Israeli teens.
The killing quickly triggered condemnations from Palestinian and Israeli leaders, and from the United States and other countries.
Israeli police are trying to determine whether the death in Jerusalem was retaliation for the killings of the <a href="http://ift.tt/1qmQBjn; target="_blank">West Bank teens.
The body was discovered an hour after police were notified that a Palestinian teenager had been forced into a car in the Beit Hanina neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a speedy investigation to find "who is behind this despicable murder and the background to this act," according to a statement from his office.
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"Prime Minister Netanyahu calls on all sides not to take the law into their own hands. Israel is a country of law and everyone is ordered to act according to the law."
'Barbaric act'
"This is a horrible and barbaric act which I strongly condemn," Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said. "This is not our way and I am fully confident that our security forces will bring the perpetrators to justice. I call on everyone to exercise restraint."
Palestinian media reported that Mohammad Abu Khedair, a 17-year-old from Jerusalem, was kidnapped in Jerusalem by settlers.
His body, found in a forest, "was charred and bore signs of violence," Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported.
The teen's cousin Majdi Abu Khedair said whoever carried out the abduction was driving a car that had been used in a previous attempted abduction, two days ago. "We blame the Israeli police for the kidnapping and killing of (Mohammad) and his burning," Khedair said. "The Israeli police and Israeli government should do the same as they have done in Hebron: Demolish and blow the settler houses who have done this crime."
The Israeli military destroyed the homes of the two suspects in the killings of the three Israeli teens.
After repeatedly condemning the killings of the three Jewish teens, the United States condemned the Palestinian teen's killing Wednesday. In a statement, Secretary of State of John Kerry called it "despicable and senseless."
"It is sickening to think of an innocent 17-year-old boy snatched off the streets and his life stolen from him and his family. There are no words to convey adequately our condolences to the Palestinian people." He noted that both Israeli and Palestinian officials have condemned it, and he added to Netanyahu's call. "Those who undertake acts of vengeance only destabilize an already explosive and emotional situation."
As news of the boy's death spread, clashes broke out between Palestinian residents and Israeli security forces in Shuafat, a Jerusalem neighborhood, witnesses said.
Residents threw stones at Israeli security forces. The Israelis responded with occasional volleys of stun grenades or tear gas. A crew with the Palestinian Red Crescent said more than 50 Palestinians were injured.
Also in Shuafat, Palestinian protesters attacked two Palestinians whom they mistook for undercover Israeli police, <a href="http://ift.tt/1mKLjby; target="_blank">The Jerusalem Post reported.
Tensions in the region have been at a fever pitch since Monday, when the bodies of the Israeli teens were found in a field in the West Bank. The three had been abducted on their way home from school more than two weeks earlier.
Israelis rally against racism
On Tuesday, after the teens' funerals, several large groups of men marched around Jerusalem, chanting "Death to Arabs." Packed crowds gathered Wednesday to reject that and all forms of racism at a Jerusalem rally.
"So great to be among Israel compatriots who less than a day after a suspected hate crime are here to say 'no to racism,' " columnist Meir Javedanfar wrote on Twitter.
"We are not a people of revenge but a people of comfort," said Nitzan Horowitz, a member of the Israeli Knesset, according to a tweet from professor Michael Pitkowsky.
The Israeli government, however, has vowed to exact revenge against Hamas, which it blames for the deaths of the three Israeli teens, Eyal Yifrach, 19; Gilad Shaar, 16; and Naftali Frankel, a 16-year-old dual U.S.-Israeli citizen.
Hamas praised the abductions but denied it was responsible for what happened. It warned that if Netanyahu "brings a war on Gaza, the gates of hell will open to him."
At the teens' funerals, Netanyahu said the country would avenge their deaths at "the hands of evil men."
"A broad moral gulf separates us from our enemies," he said. "They sanctify death, we sanctify life. They sanctify cruelty, and we mercy and compassion. That is the secret of our strength."
Later, Netanyahu said hundreds of Hamas activists had been arrested, dozens of institutions in Gaza had closed, and homes had been demolished.
Latest fighting
On Monday night, Israel stepped up airstrikes on what it called terrorist infrastructure in Gaza in response to rockets fired into Israel. On Tuesday night, no airstrikes were reported.
Nine mortar rounds had been fired into southern Israel on Wednesday by midafternoon, the Israel Defense Forces said. Israel responded with an airstrike, targeting the site used to launch four mortar rounds, the IDF said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Fatah party and is based in the West Bank, condemned the abductions of the three Israeli teens, even as the Palestinian Cabinet criticized what it called "Israel's illegal measures" in response.
The Palestinian Cabinet on Tuesday said 12 Palestinians had been killed since the military operation to find the teens began on June 13; it did not identify them by name, nor detail how or when they died.
CNN reported earlier, citing Palestinian medical sources, that at least one man died from a heart attack during a raid on his West Bank home last month; at least five were killed in clashes with the Israeli military; and two men accused by the Israeli military of being involved in recent rocket attacks were killed in an airstrike last week in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel demolished the West Bank home of the alleged Palestinian gunman who fired at civilian vehicles in the West Bank in April, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. A police officer was killed in the shooting, his wife was critically injured, and a child in a second car was wounded as well, the report said.
Opinion: Teens' killing hurts Israelis, bad for Palestinians
CNN's Kareem Khadder reported from Jerusalem; Jethro Mullen reported from Hong Kong; Josh Levs reported from Atlanta. CNN's Atika Shubert, Ben Wedeman, Michael Schwartz, and Ali Younes contributed to this report.
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