ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/TODDLER Palestinian toddler killed in suspected Jewish extremist attack - police

Record ID: 145590

  • Title: ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/TODDLER Palestinian toddler killed in suspected Jewish extremist attack - police
  • Date: 31st July 2015
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF BURNT PHOTOS OF PALESTINIAN FAMILY AND BABY
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA3312VOWOBCB3QVNM2UZI2BTEU
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Suspected Jewish extremists set fire to a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank on Friday (July 31), killing an 18-month-old baby and seriously injuring several other family members, an act that Israel's prime minister described as terrorism.
    The house in Duma, a small village near the city of Nablus, was torched in the early morning as the family slept. Graffiti in Hebrew reading "revenge" and "long live the king and messiah" was scrawled on the wall outside, police and witnesses said.
    Both the child's parents and his four-year-old brother were badly hurt. They were taken by helicopter for treatment in an Israeli hospital, officials said.
    It was the worst attack by Israeli extremists since a Palestinian teenager was torched to death in Jerusalem a year ago. That followed the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers by Palestinian militants in the West Bank.
    Governor of Nablus, Akram Al-Joub who came to the scene blamed the Israeli army and the settlers.
    "It t is an ugly act that human kind has not experienced ?before except for the Jews under the Nazis. It is strange how a group of settlers supported by the soldiers of the (Israeli) occupation are spreading in all of the cities and the villages of the West Bank, threatening the security of the Palestinian people and killing our babies. This clearly demonstrates that the soldiers of the occupation are supporting them (the settlers) to move freely around the West Bank, to practice the killing and burning of the sons of the Palestinian people," he said.
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack.
    Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said an investigation was underway and called the attack "nothing short of a barbaric act of terrorism."
    A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was responsible.
    Israeli Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the torching was an apparent "Price Tag" attack, a reference to militant settlers who threaten to exact retribution for any Israeli government curbs on settlement expansion in the West Bank.
    Israel tore down two illegal structures in the Beit El settlement near Ramallah and removed dozens of people from another settlement near Nablus on Wednesday, sparking protests.
    The "Price Tag" group has been blamed for torching a number of mosques in the West Bank in recent years. Those attacks caused widespread damage but no casualties.
    Though Israel has vowed to crack down on such assailants only a handful of indictments have been handed down.
    The Palestinians seek a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, the Palestinians have limited self rule, but nearly 60 percent of the territory remains under full control of the Israeli military.
    Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law. The last round of U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2014.
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