Palestinian baby killed, relatives injured in West Bank terror attack
Assailants sprayed Jewish nationalist slogans on homes’ walls
Tomy great sorrow, it seems we have been lax until now in our treatment of the phenomena of Jewish terrorism.
REUVEN RIVLIN ISRAELI PRESIDENT
Assailants scribbled “revenge” and other Jewish nationalist slogans on two West Bank homes before setting them on fire early Friday, killing a Palestinian toddler and injuring three family members, Israel’s army said.
“This crime wouldn’t have happened without the Israeli government’s insistence on continuing West Bank settlements and protecting the settlers,” said Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Wednesday approved the construction of 300 new West Bank apartments, and other top ministers condemned what they called a terrorist incident.
The attack came as settlers mark the 10th anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, in which more than 8,000 Jews were evicted from their homes. It also followed a decision by Israel’s High Court of Justice this week to uphold demolition orders for two structures in a West Bank Jewish settlement, ruling they were built illegally on land owned by Palestinians.
An initial army investigation suggests that at least two people wearing masks entered the West Bank village of Duma, sprayed graffiti on two homes and broke windows before hurling fire bombs inside, army spokesman Lt.-Col. Peter Lerner said on his Twitter page. Eighteen-monthold Ali Dawabsheh was killed while his four-year-old brother and parents were wounded, according to a Palestinian official. The second home was empty at the time of the attack.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin announced he would visit the wounded Palestinians and said he felt “a sense of shame.”
“To my great sorrow, it seems we have been lax until now in our treatment of the phenomena of Jewish terrorism,” Rivlin said in an emailed statement that appealed to Israeli Arabs and Palestinians not “to succumb to shock and anger.”
Tzipi Livni, a former minister in charge of peace talks with the Palestinians, urged Netanyahu to call Abbas.
Gilead Sher, head of the Center for Applied Negotiations at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, said the attack on Duma could be connected to the court’s demolition ruling.
“You can’t detach the situation in the Palestinian territories from acts of extremists on both sides,” Sher said. “Any act of extremism may turn over whatever tranquillity we seem to be living in.”
Talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed last year over issues including Jewish settlements on land the Palestinians want for their future state.
Yaakov Perry, an opposition lawmaker from Yesh Atid and former head of Israel’s domestic security service, said the attack could trigger wider unrest.
Jewish settlers have carried out more than 11,000 acts of vandalism and arson against Palestinian homes, cars, churches and mosques in the past decade, said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian peace negotiator. Abbas said he’d meet with top officials to discuss policy after the attack as well as violence earlier this week at the al-Aqsa mosque, that stands on a site also revered by Jews.
Hamas, the Islamic group that rules the Gaza Strip, called for retribution attacks on Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers.
Shots were fired at an Israeli car near a West Bank settlement causing damage but no injury. Security forces were stoned in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Entrance to the al- Aqsa mosque was restricted to people over the age of 50 following reports that Palestinian youths were planning protests during Friday Muslim prayers, spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
Netanyahu said he had instructed “security forces to use all means at our disposal to capture” and bring to justice those responsible for the attack in Duma.
Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon said security forces would not allow “Jewish terrorists to harm Palestinians in the West Bank” and promised to use all means to stop them.