Israeli teen who killed Palestinian mother transferred to house arrest

A Tel Aviv court has authorised an Israeli teenager held in jail over a Palestinian woman's death to be transferred to house arrest pending his trial, the justice ministry said on Wednesday.

The 16-year-old, who as a minor can not be named, is accused of having caused the death of a Palestinian mother, Aisha al-Rabi, by hurling a heavy rock at the windscreen of her car on 12 October south of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

His DNA was found on the rock.

The youth, a pupil of a religious school in the nearby Jewish settlement of Rehalim, has been charged with homicide motivated by hatred of Arabs.

Four fellow pupils were arrested alongside him and questioned at the end of December.

Rabi's death came just hours after seven Palestinians were killed and nearly 200 others injured in Gaza during protests marking the 29th week of the Great March of Return in October.

Some 800,000 settlers now live in the occupied West Bank, as Netanyahu's hard-right government pushes ahead with their expansion at breakneck speed. 

All Israeli settlements are seen as illegal under international law and major obstacles to peace as they are built on occupied Palestinian territory.