Israeli extremists charged in connection with deadly attack on Palestinian family

Amiram Ben Oliel, 21, from the northern settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank, will be tried for murder over the attack on the Dawabsha family home in the West Bank village of Duma on July 31.

The Israeli military demolished and sealed off the occupied Jerusalem homes of two Palestinians accused of deadly attacks against Israelis in the city past year.

Relatives of the Dawabsheh family, however, questioned why it took more than six months to bring charges and why only two people were indicted. “It definitely has an important influence”, he said.

Twenty-two Israelis, an American and an Eritrean have been killed in Palestinian attacks including stabbings, vehicle rammings and gunfire targeting security forces and civilians since October 1.

Abu Jamal was also a cousin of two Palestinians who in November stormed a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighbourhood with meat cleavers and a pistol, killing five Jewish worshippers and a policeman before being shot dead.

Twenty-one Israelis and a US citizen have died in the latest bloodshed – a number that could rise if police deem a Tel Aviv shooting rampage that killed two people on Friday (January 3) as a pro-Palestinian attack.

In a statement Sunday, a settlers group praised the indictments, saying it was “now clear that these acts were perpetrated by a fringe group of anarchists bent on destroying the State of Israel and the freedom and justice that it represents”. An Arab man who remains on the loose is the primary suspect, though a motive hasn’t officially been determined yet.

Meanwhile, an Israeli woman soldier was shot and slightly wounded in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday, rescue services said.

At the same time, 139 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, most while carrying out attacks. Referred to in Israel as “price-tag attacks”, such offences have usually been carried out in what the attackers say are reprisals for Palestinian violence against Israelis or government curbs on unauthorised building in the West Bank.

Security forces launched a manhunt shortly after initial distress calls and apprehended a suspect who fits the description given by eyewitnesses. She was moderately wounded and troops were searching for the shooter.

Israeli soldiers patrolling the West Bank will soon get new protection in the form of neck guards, an army official told The Times of Israel Monday.