JERUSALEM // The parents and brother of a Palestinian toddler burned to death by suspected Jewish extremists were fighting for their lives on Saturday, as a Palestinian teen shot during clashes with the Israeli army died of his wounds.
The firebombing of the Dawabsha family home in the occupied West Bank on Friday, which killed 18-month-old Ali Saad, sparked an international outcry over Israel’s failure to tackle violence by hardline Jewish settlers.
The toddler’s father, Saad, was being treated for third-degree burns at the Soroka hospital in southern Israel, where a spokeswoman described his condition as “critical”.
His mother, Riham, and his four-year-old brother, Ahmed, were being treated at Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv, where a spokeswoman described their condition as life-threatening.
The UAE condemned the attack in the strongest possible terms, the official Wam news agency said.
“This crime is a dangerous escalation of the terrorist acts being carried out by the Israeli colonists on the West Bank against the Palestinian people, their land and their places of worship, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces,” said UAE Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. “It is absolutely essential that the necessary pressure is placed on Israel to respond to the crimes of the colonists in a very serious way.”
“[It] is the natural by-product and result of the spread of Israeli colonies in Palestinian territories,” he added, according to Wam. “It is the result of – and a symptom of – the brutal racialist culture of the colonists that is directed against the Palestinians.”
The US state department also condemned the “vicious terrorist attack” in “the strongest possible terms,” urging Israel to “apprehend the murderers” and calling on both sides to “avoid escalating tensions”.
Meanwhile, the European Union on Friday called on Israel to show “zero tolerance” for settler violence.
The Dawabsha family’s small brick and cement home in the village of Duma, near to the city of Nabulus, was gutted by fire, and a Jewish Star of David spray-painted on a wall along with the words “revenge” and “long live the Messiah”.
The attack was indicative of so-called “price tag” violence – a euphemism for nationalist-motivated hate crimes by Jewish extremists.
Palestinian protesters took to the streets across the West Bank, as well as in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, triggering clashes with the Israeli army.
Laith Khaldi, 16, was shot in the chest during clashes with Israeli forces near the Atara checkpoint on Friday evening and died hours later in hospital.
The Israeli army said that the teen, who was from the Jalazon refugee camp, north of Ramallah, had thrown a Molotov cocktail at an army post in the town of Birzeit, also north of Ramallah.
On Saturday, dozens of Palestinians were clashing with Israeli forces at Jalazon, where Laith’s funeral had taken place.
Hundreds participated in his funeral, with some men firing in the air with automatic rifles as Laith’s body was being taken from the mosque to the cemetery.
“I spent years raising him, and now I am so angry,” said his mother, Samar Khayatt. “He is happy now; he’s a martyr and he’s next to God, but I am very angry.”
A military spokeswoman said that some 50 Palestinians were throwing stones and fire bombs at Israeli forces in Jalazon, who were using riot dispersal means against them.
On Saturday morning, Palestinians and Jewish settlers clashed near the village of Kusra in the northern West Bank, trading volleys of stones until the Israeli army declared the area a closed military zone.
Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official in Nablus who monitors settlement activity, said that the settlers had attacked farmers who were working their land in Kusra.
Also on Saturday, two officers were lightly wounded while dispersing a riot, police said.
Meanwhile, in east Jerusalem, some 10 Palestinians were wounded in overnight clashes with Israeli police.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s office said that after meeting with senior officials, it had called for United Nations protection.
“We must reinforce and activate people and peaceful resistance on all levels and on all tracks in order to confront and deter the terror of settlers who are protected by (Israel),” it said.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the attack on the Dawabsha family as “terrorism in every respect” and vowed to spare no effort in bringing the perpetrators to justice.
But Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said that he doubted Israel would provide “true justice” and ordered his foreign minister to file a complaint at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Reuters
