DUMA, West Bank — A sleeping toddler was burned to death when suspected Jewish assailants set fire to two Palestinian homes in a West Bank village early Friday, an attack that also critically wounded the child's 4-year-old brother and parents and outraged both Israelis and Palestinians.
The attack threatened to set off another violent escalation and further stirred Palestinian fears that Israel allows attacks by militant Jewish settlers in the West Bank to go unpunished, though Israel says it does its best to track down assailants.
Palestinian officials blamed Israel for the attack while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a "terror attack."
According to the Israeli military, the suspects entered the village of Duma, near the city of Nablus, where they set the homes ablaze and scrawled graffiti in Hebrew, including "Long live the Messiah," ''revenge" and "price tag" and then fled the scene. The "price tag" attacks have been used by Jewish settlers for years to exact a price on any Israeli steps they see as favoring the Palestinians.
The slain child was identified as 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh. His 4-year-old brother Ahmad, father Saed and mother Riham were seriously hurt, according to Gassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official from the Nablus area.