Israeli police find body of missing U.S. student

JERUSALEM -- A spokesperson for Israeli police confirmed to CBS News that they have found the body of an American seminary student who disappeared while hiking in Jerusalem last week.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the body was found in the same area where Aharon Sofer disappeared.

The 23-year-old Sofer, of Lakewood, N.J., an ultra-Orthodox student at a yeshiva, disappeared during a hike with a friend last Friday.

Rosenfeld said the police were pursuing all avenues in their investigation, including the possibility that Sofer may have fallen victim to an attack by Palestinian militants.

The crisis between Israelis and Palestinians has spiked in recent weeks with the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which erupted on July 8.

On Tuesday, Israel and Hamas announced that they had agreed to an open-ended cease-fire in the war that stemmed from the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank by Hamas operatives.

In an apparent revenge attack, right-wing Israeli Jews kidnapped and burned to death a young Palestinian boy near Jerusalem in early July.