Israeli military says child killed in West Bank attack by suspected Jewish

A Palestinian toddler was killed overnight Thursday in an arson attack near the West Bank city of Nablus, suspected to have been carried out by Jewish extremists.

The parents of Ali Saad Dawabsheh and his four-year-old brother were also injured in the attack, sources told Al Jazeera on Friday morning.

Israeli security officials said the fire is suspected to have been set by Jewish extremists. The discrepancy was not immediately clear. Critics say police have been slow to apprehend the assailants.

Price tag attacks are acts of vandalism and violence against Palestinians and their properties as well as Islamic holy sites.

“This attack against civilians is nothing short of a barbaric act of terrorism”, the statement by Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner read.

“These settlement measures and war crimes are part of a plan by Israeli leaders to impose a “Greater Israel” on historic Palestine and destroy the two-state solution and the chance for peace”, said Hanan Ashrawi in a statement from her office.

“It’s not something we do with Palestinians only”, he said. “We will fight against them firmly and with all means and tools at our disposal”.

Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday condemned Israel’s approval of 300 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank and called on the government to reverse its decision.

The “Price Tag” group has been blamed for a string of mosque torchings in the West Bank in the past few years, often in retribution for Israeli actions against illegally built settlements.