Jewish settlers indicted for deadly W. Bank arson attack

Prosecutors filed three murder charges at an Israeli district court against Amiram Ben-Oliel, a 21-year-old from Jerusalem, according to Israel’s Justice Department.

Yinon Reuveni, 20, and another minor were charged for other violence against Palestinians.

The arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, while his mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds.

The Dawabsha family were sleeping in their home when it was firebombed early on 31 July, and daubed with slogans in Hebrew, including the word “revenge”.

The long-awaited indictment follows months of investigations that had failed to produce concrete results.

The police at Herzyla were in a state of alert after the vehicle that drove through the roadblock near Jerusalem was found abandoned after the driver, suspected of planning an attack, fled on foot.

Saad’s brother Naser was unconvinced by Israel’s commitment to the prosecution. We want a real judgement for those murders and to put them (the perpetrators) in jail for a long time, to demolish their homes and to deal with them like they (Israeli authorities) are dealing with the Palestinians.

Amjad Abu Asab, who heads an East Jerusalem committee for prisoners’ families, said that both children were detained last Wednesday and were “interrogated in the absence of adult family members and lawyers, which is a serious violation of Israeli law and worldwide law”.

A “price tag” attack is a term used by radical Israeli settlers to denote reprisal against Palestinians in response to moves by the Israeli government to evacuate illegal West Bank outposts, according to officials.

This view was also taken by defence lawyers for the pair who said they had given false confessions under torture in closed-door interrogations, an allegation denied by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Shin Bet.

Several others also were indicted in a February arson attack on the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem, the burning of a Palestinian taxi, as well as the slashing of tires of cars belonging to Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem.

At the same time, 139 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, most while carrying out attacks.

Israel says the violence is being fanned by a Palestinian campaign of lies and incitement.

A Palestinian attacker stabbed an Israeli soldier Tuesday in the West Bank, lightly wounding him before troops at the scene shot and killed the assailant, the military said.