JERUSALEM — Israeli police have arrested six people in connection with the kidnap and murder of a Palestinian teenager which sparked four straight days of riots, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Sunday.

The paper's website gave no further details about the identities of those arrested but described it as a "dramatic development," using words echoed by other Israeli media outlets.

Earlier, police acknowledged for the first time there were "indications that the background to the killing was nationalistic."

It followed days of growing suspicion that Wednesday's murder was carried out by extremist Jews in revenge for last month's abduction and murder of Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank.