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Home of witness to Duma arson set on fire: Palestinian official

The photo shows the entrance to the burned house of the key witness to the July 2015 deadly arson attack on the home of Sa’ad Dawabsha in the town of Duma, the occupied West Bank. (Photo by Maan news agency)

The home of a key witness to an arson attack by Israeli settlers that killed a Palestinian baby in July 2015 has reportedly been set on fire by unidentified assailants.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an news agency that the attackers threw Molotov cocktails at the house of Ibrahim Dawabsha during the early hours of Sunday while he and his family were sleeping, but he survived the attack.

Ibrahim is the only witness to last July’s attack, in which 18-month-old Ali Sa’ad Dawabsha was killed when a large fire broke out after extremist Israeli settlers threw firebombs and Molotov cocktails into two Palestinian houses in the town of Duma, southeast of Nablus City in the occupied West Bank.

The only survivor of the July arson attack is 5-year-old Ahmad, who later also lost his parents, Sa’ad and Riham, due to the injuries they had sustained in the assault.

Ibrahim’s home was almost adjacent to the house that was targeted in the arson attack. His wife was taken to Rafidiya Hospital Sunday due to smoke inhalation.

The deadly July assault prompted international outcry slamming the Israeli regime for its failure to address the acts of aggression by settlers.

A relative stands on January 3, 2016, inside the burnt-out home of Sa’ad Dawabsha, who was killed alongside his toddler and his wife when their house was firebombed by Israeli settlers on July 31, 2015 in the West Bank town of Duma. ©AFP

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the arson attack was a “terrorist act.”

The regime said at the time of the Duma attack that the perpetrators would be punished, apparently condemning the assault, but the pledge only amounted to an “empty rhetoric,” according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

“Official condemnations of this attack are empty rhetoric as long as politicians continue their policy of avoiding enforcement of the law on Israelis who harm Palestinians, and do not deal with the public climate and the incitement which serve as backdrop to these acts,” B’Tselem stated.

The latest development comes as the occupied territories have been the scene of tensions due to Israel’s imposition in August 2015 of restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.

Over 200 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed at the hands of Israeli forces in the new spate of violence since the beginning of October 2015.


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