Jewish Israelis Charged Over Arson Attack on Palestinian Home

The firebombing, carried out under cover of darkness while the family slept, sparked soul-searching among Israelis rattled by the horrific attack.

The attack at the end of July killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha and his parents Saad and Riham. Israel came under heavy pressure to try those responsible, with rights groups questioning the delay in the case and contrasting it to the swift reaction often following Palestinian attacks. “We are not restricting it to one sector and we are not focusing on only one sector”, Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday.

The attack in Duma and the ensuing Israeli investigation laid bare fissures in Mr Netanyahu’s coalition government, but today he said the indictments demonstrated the rule of law in Israel. News storiesdisplayed here appear in our category for global and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.comand The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization.

It said the arson was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli by Palestinians a month earlier.

Thirteen other Israeli Jews, a lot of them minors, were also indicted for a slew of hate crimes including an assault on a Palestinian, vandalism of Arab property and a church torching. All four were charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation. Another 23 were implicated in attacks, it said. Those include co-founder Meir Ettinger, who was placed in administrative detention after the Duma attack.

A police statement said Sunday’s indictments were the fruit of “the investment of many resources including technological means, initiative, innovation and creativity”.

“I didn’t see that they went on a house-to-house search, imposed curfews, took DNA samples, that people were held without charge or without trial”. “It’s a lead. They now need to follow the lead all the way through”.

Supporters of the suspects – religious extremists known as “hilltop youth” who oppose the “secular” Israeli state – denounced those methods as torture.

Lawyers for some of those detained over the arson attack allege their clients were tortured to extract confessions but this has been denied by the Israeli authorities. Shin Bet said recent crackdowns haven’t fully eradicated the group’s leadership.

The Jerusalem Post quoted police sources who said that the Palestinian approached a bus stop in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, then lunged at a bystander with his knife.

Hundreds of Israeli police and soldiers were on site for the home destructions, which took place without incident after residents were cleared from the area.

Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers over the past three and a half months have killed 21 Israelis, mostly in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks.

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. An Arab man who remains on the loose is the primary suspect, though a motive hasn’t officially been determined yet.

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

Palestinians say they are frustrated by years of unchecked settler violence, after almost five decades of Israeli occupation.

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.