The US State Department is now calling on Israeli authorities to investigate reports that a 15-year-old US citizen was severely beaten while in police custody, following violent protests over the killing of another teenager, 16-year-old Abu Khdeir, whom latest reports say was burned alive.

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The two youths turned out to be cousins.

Palestinian-American Tariq Khdeir, who goes to school in Florida, is being held by Israeli authorities in Jerusalem.

State department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said a US consulate official has visited the teenager, and that the department has called for an honest investigation of any excessive use of force while he was in detention.

Tariq Khdeir was beaten up during clashes with police Thursday ahead of his cousin's burial.

His parents, Suha and Salah, showed photos of his swollen and bruised face, but added he had been treated at an Israeli hospital.

The father said he witnessed his son's arrest and insisted the boy was not involved in any violence on the part of the demonstrators.

Police say the youth was detained with a slingshot in his possession, along with six other demonstrators, some of whom were armed with knives. The slingshot, said police, was used to hurl stones at officers.

Khdeir's Arab cousin Abu was recently seized from his home and found dead in a forest Wednesday.

Later, autopsy by Israeli doctors showed Abu Khdeir was burned alive. 

Palestinians immediately accused Israeli extremists of having perpetrated the abduction and murder in retaliation for the deaths of three Israeli teens who were abducted and killed in the West Bank.

After the abduction, Israel launched a massive crackdown on the militant group Hamas, while retaliatory Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes intensified. More than 150 rockets have been fired from Palestine into southern Israel, and the Israeli air strikes have targeted more than 70 targets in Gaza.

TagsJerusalem, US State Department, Tariq Khdeir, Abu Khdeir