Those attacks caused widespread damage but no casualties.
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Extreme-right Israeli activists have committed acts of vandalism and violence against Palestinians and Arab Israelis for years, attacking Christian and places of worship and even Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli military said it sent troop reinforcements to the West Bank, fearing the incident could trigger unrest.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has reportedly called for a “day of fury” all over the Palestinian areas to avenge the overnight arson attacks. He went to get help and when he returned they had gone.
Musallem Dawabsha, 23, told the Palestinian news agency Maan: “We saw four settlers running away keeping distance between each other”.
The slain child was identified as 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh.
Citing eye-witnesses, Haaretz reported that up to four settlers could be seen fleeing the scene after the torching of the family home. The Israeli military said three people were critically wounded and one was slightly injured. “With our souls and blood we shall redeem you, martyr”, they chanted as the child’s small flag-draped body was carried through the village for burial.
His mother and father, Riham and Saad, and their son Ahmad, 4, also sustained injuries and were evacuated to a nearby hospital, Daghlas said, adding that their home was left completely burned.
Right-wing members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government demanded that the structures be saved and that Jewish settlement construction continue. “This is a terrorist attack. The state of Israel takes a strong line against terrorism regardless of who the perpetrators are”, he said in a statement.
Herzog compared the attack to the killing last year of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir, who was burned alive last summer by Jewish extremists in a revenge attack for the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teens.
Netanyahu further told Abbas he had ordered the Israeli security forces to “use all measures to locate the murderers”.
The Palestinian leadership announced it would prepare a file on the crime against the Palestinian family in Duma and present it to the global Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. “We call for full accountability, effective law enforcement and zero tolerance for settler violence”, a spokesperson for EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogeherini said in a statement.
Earlier a spokesman for Abbas held Israel responsible.
“This is a direct effect of decades of impunity given by the Israeli government to settler terrorism”, it said. He also said that men under 50 will not be allowed to attend Friday prayers. “When the prime minister increases the settlements in the West Bank, this gives them a green light to do this”.
The attack happened in the early morning hours of Friday when perpetrators firebombed a house in the village of Duma.
It is very rare for anyone to is killed in such attacks.
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On Wednesday, settlers scuffled with police as Israeli authorities demolished two partially built blocks which the high court had ruled were built illegally on Palestinian-owned land, in the settlement of Beit El.
