JERUSALEM, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Israeli authorities said on Saturday that a Palestinian suspected of stabbing to death an Israeli girl was arrested in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Israeli Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that a Palestinian man was arrested overnight in connection to the killing of Ori Ansbaher, 19 years old, on Thursday in the Israeli settlement of Tekoa.
The suspect is a resident of the flashpoint city of Hebron, south of Jerusalem, Rosenfeld said.
"A joint police and Israel's security service investigation took place after the murder to get information about the suspect," he said, adding that "based on that information, the Palestinian suspect from Hebron was arrested by Yamam (Israel's counter-terrorism unit) in Ramallah."
There is a gag order on the rest of the details of the investigation, he noted.
Palestinian media reported that the suspect was caught by the Palestinian security service and was then transferred for an investigation in Israel.
Ansbaher's body was found with multiple stabbing in a Jerusalem forest on Friday.
After the discovery of the body, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that "the security forces will track down those responsible for the killing and we will treat them with the full force of the law."
The unusual killing comes amidst heightened unrest that started in May 2018 in the wake of the relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The unrest started in the Gaza Strip with the "Marches of Return," a series of rallies near the fence separating between the besieged enclave and Israel, and later spread to the West Bank too.
About 650,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and the Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.
The settlements are considered illegal under international law and most of the international community consider them a hurdle to peace because they are located on lands where the Palestinians wish to establish their future country.
