Palestinian homes torched; toddler dies

Israeli policemen inspect a Palestinian home that was set afire Friday in Duma near the West Bank city of Nablus.
Israeli policemen inspect a Palestinian home that was set afire Friday in Duma near the West Bank city of Nablus.

DUMA, West Bank -- Arsonists set fire to two Palestinian homes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, burning a toddler alive and injuring three others in an attack that authorities say was most likely carried out by Jewish extremists.

photo

AP

A Palestinian man inspects a house Friday at Duma near the West Bank city of Nablus after it was burned, killing an 18-month-old Palestinian child and injuring his parents and a 4-year-old brother, according to a Palestinian official. Jewish settlers were accused of setting blazes at two homes.

The assailants signed their work with a spray-painted message that read "Revenge!" in Hebrew, next to a scrawled image of a Star of David.

A Palestinian ambulance driver who helped recover the charred body of Ali Saad Dawabsheh, the 18-month-old boy, sat outside the house hours later, still stunned.

"I don't want to close my eyes because I will see the image of that baby again," said Yousef Direira. "I have seen all sorts of terrible death and terrible injuries in my job. This one broke my heart."

The arson assault was quickly labeled a "price tag attack" in the Israeli media -- a phrase used to describe violence and vandalism carried out by settlers and their supporters to extract "a price" for any actions against them, either by Israeli soldiers or Palestinian civilians.

Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders condemned the attack. But the Palestinians blamed Israeli leaders for creating an atmosphere of hate and incitement and for failing to confront the specter of "Jewish terrorism."

"A nation whose children were burned in the Holocaust must do a lot of soul-searching if it bred people who burn other humans," said Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.

Witnesses said a small group of masked attackers went to the village of Duma, a 30-minute drive northeast of Ramallah, early Friday. The assailants smashed windows and tossed firebombs inside two Palestinian homes at the edge of the village while the residents slept.

"I heard screaming, then I smelled smoke and gasoline," said Abdul Razik Dawabsheh, 71, a relative and neighbor of the boy who was killed.

He said men in the village chased the assailants but lost them. "We haven't had problems here. This is a quiet place," he said. "The settlers throw stones at our cars. They harass the shepherds. The usual."

Three members of the Dawabsheh family were taken to an Israeli hospital by Israeli military helicopter with serious burns. A 4-year-old boy is listed in critical condition.

Palestinian chief peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian Authority holds the Israeli government "fully responsible" for what he called "the assassination" of the child.

"We cannot separate the barbaric attack that took place in Duma last night from the recent settlement approvals by the Israeli government, a government which represents an Israeli national coalition for settlements and apartheid," Erekat said.

Israeli leaders across the political spectrum condemned the attacks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was "shocked" by the "horrific" arson. "This is an act of terrorism in every respect," the prime minister said. "The State of Israel takes a strong line against terrorism regardless of who the perpetrators are."

Netanyahu telephoned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the crime and also visited the Israeli hospital where the Dawabsheh family was being treated.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin also visited the family. "To my great sorrow, until now it seems we have been lax in our treatment of the phenomena of Jewish terrorism," Rivlin said. "Perhaps we did not internalize that we are faced with a determined and dangerous, ideological group, which aims to destroy the fragile bridges which we work so tirelessly to build."

Across the globe, other world leaders condemned the arson attack.

President Barack Obama's administration branded it a "vicious terrorist" act that must be punished.

In a Friday statement, the State Department welcomed Netanyahu's condemnation of the attack and called for Israeli authorities to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice. It also urged all sides to maintain calm and not escalate tensions.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the attack a "terrorist act" and blamed Israel's failure to punish repeated acts of settler violence for the tragedy.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Ban strongly condemns Friday's "murder" of the toddler and calls for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

In other news, the ultra-Orthodox extremist suspected of stabbing revelers at Jerusalem's Gay Pride Parade appeared in court Friday, and the judge ordered that he remain in custody.

The suspected attacker, Yishai Schlissel, was arrested at the pride parade the previous day, after he brandished a knife and stabbed six people. The court extended his arrest by 12 days as the investigation against him continues, police spokesman Luba Samri said.

Schlissel was convicted of a similar attack that wounded several people at a gay pride parade in Jerusalem in 2005. Schlissel had been released from prison just three weeks ago after serving his sentence.

Israeli hospital officials said Friday that a 16-year-old girl remained in critical condition after the attack, with wounds to her chest and shoulder. Three others are in hospital, but their conditions are not life-threatening, and the remaining two have been discharged, hospital officials said.

Information for this article was contributed by William Booth, Ruth Eglash and Sufian Taha of The Washington Post and by Matthew Lee and staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/01/2015

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