Tariq Khdeir, the 15-year-old Palestinian American teenager from Tampa who was allegedly beaten by Israel police last week, has been released from custody but remains under house arrest in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat.
News reports indicate that Khdeir's face and lips remain swollen from the blows suffered from the attack that occurred on Thursday, where video captured the teen being beaten by Israel border police officers. That incident came a day after Tariq's cousin , 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir was killed in an incident that has created renewed tensions in the Middle East between the Israelis and Palestinians. Tariq Khdeir was interviewed by ABC News after his release.
http://abcnews.go.com/video/embed?id=24442550
Israeli police have arrested a group of Israeli suspects in connection with Muhammad Abu Khdeir's kidnapping and subsequent killing. The New York Times reports that an Israeli police spokesman says there is a "strong possibility" that the motive for Muhammad's killing was "nationalistic," meaning a revenge attack after the recent kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank.
Israeli police say Tariq Khdeir was part of a small group participating in clashes with armed police, but Khdeir denies he did that. On ABC's This Week today, Ron Dermer, the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., agreed that it looked like excessive force.
The U.S. State Department is calling for “a speedy, transparent and credible investigation” into Khdeir's beating.
"We are relieved that Tariq Khdeir is now free and may receive the medical treatment he was denied by Israeli authorities," CAIR-Florida Chief Executive Director Hassan Shibly said in a statement this afternoon. "It is unacceptable that Tariq has been sentenced to house arrest while those who beat him so brutally remain free."
Tariq Khdeir attends Universal Academy of Florida high school in Tampa. He was on summer break visiting family members when the violence broke out last week.
