Israel To Detain Jewish Arson Suspects Without Trial

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on erev Shabbos Nachamu spoke with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and said that everyone in Israel was shocked by the reprehensible terrorism against the Darawshe family.

Suspected Jewish extremists set fire to a Palestinian home in the West Bank, burning a toddler to death on Friday.

Israeli troops also attacked and severely beat three unidentified Palestinian youths from Al-Mughier before arresting them and taking them to an unknown destination.

Laith Fadel al-Khaladi, 17, was reportedly shot in the chest by an Israeli sniper near Bir Zeit, north of Ramallah in the central West Bank.

Israel said Tuesday it was interrogating the suspected head of a Jewish extremist group in the first arrest of an Israeli suspect following last week’s arson attack in the West Bank that killed a Palestinian toddler and wounded his brother and parents.

He said “we” are exhausted of the Israeli policy, which does not take any punitive actions against their settlers’ attacks committed against the Palestinian people with the support and incitement of the Israeli government.

A day earlier, an anti-gay ultra-Orthodox man stabbed marchers at Jerusalem’s gay pride parade. Hospital officials said Sunday their lives remained at risk.

On Sunday, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon authorised the use of a controversial detention procedure for suspects in the firebombing generally reserved for Palestinians.

The family’s small brick and cement home in the village of Douma was gutted by fire, and a Jewish Star of David spray-painted on a wall along with the words “revenge” and “long live the Messiah”. It theoretically allows investigators to gather evidence while preventing further attacks, but Israel has been accused of abusing the procedure to keep militants behind bars without trial.

Netanyahu last year rejected a proposal to deem perpetrators of “price tag” attacks as members of a terrorist organisation and to allow for their administrative detention, but they were deemed to be “illegal organisations”, which gives security officials more authority to monitor suspects.

According to Israel’s security agency, Ettinger was arrested for “involvement in an extremist Jewish organization”.

Netanyahu said on Sunday that he had “instructed security and law enforcement officials to use all legal means at their disposal” to deal with the suspects in both attacks. We condemn this. There is zero tolerance for terrorism wherever it comes from, whatever side of the fence it comes from, we have to fight it and fight it together.