In a statement, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said: “Initial reports suggest that suspects entered the village in the early hours of the morning, set the homes ablaze and sprayed graffiti in Hebrew on the homes”.
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Extreme-right Israeli activists have been committing acts of vandalism and violence against Palestinians for years.
Israeli settlers have in recent years carried out various attacks which involved arson and graffiti on Palestinian property in the West Bank and al-Quds (Jerusalem) under the “price tag” slogan.
The military moved in and removed protesters holed up inside, but hundreds of Jewish settlers gathered at the scene and some fought with Israeli forces, who responded by firing water cannons at the protesters. The Israeli military called the incident a “terror attack”.
Spokesman Mark Toner said the settlement expansion threatened the two-state solution and questioned Israel’s “commitment” to finding a resolution to the crisis.
Local residents and witnesses identified the infant killed in the attack as 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha. The other house set on fire was badly damaged but it had been empty and there were no casualties there.
“We will not allow Jewish terrorists to harm the lives of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria”, he said in a statement, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.
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Worldwide law views East Jerusalem and the West Bank as occupied territories and deems illegal any construction of Israeli settlements on the land.
