Palestinian shot by Israeli troops during protest dies

Residents of this Palestinian hamlet still awake on a hot summer night heard the screams and rushed to the Dawabsheh home.

The attackers, who are yet to be identified, hurled Molotov cocktails at the house and also spray-painted graffiti that read “revenge” and “long live the messiah” on the walls during the attack early Friday.

He and the Israeli president paid separate visits to Ali’s brother, Ahmed, who is being treated along with his parents at specialist burns hospitals in Israel.

The second house was empty at the time of the attack.

This was the worst attack by Israeli assailants since a Palestinian teenager was torched to death in Jerusalem a year ago.

The family, which shared the one bedroom in the house, was asleep when firebombs were thrown through a window after midnight, setting fire to the small space, which claimed the life of 18-month-old Ali.

Mogherini recently announced she was working on an idea for an “international support group” which would include Arab states so as to get peace talks back on track after they stalled completely past year. “He was left inside until rescue forces came”, Dawabsheh said.

Several thousand people took to Duma’s streets for the funeral of the child, whose body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag.

The boy’s father, Hussein Abu Khdeir, told the Israeli news web site Ynet, “We feel that our son was murdered all over again”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack “reprehensible and horrific”. “Israel takes firm action against terrorism, no matter who its perpetrators are”, he said in a statement, adding that “all means” would be used to bring the assailants to justice.

However the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which dominates the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, said it held the Israeli government “fully responsible for the brutal assassination”. Israeli police limited entrance to Friday prayers at a Jerusalem mosque to men over 50, with no restrictions on women.

Israel maintains a security buffer zone along the inside of the Gaza border with limited access for farmers, and it is not uncommon for Palestinians to be shot after approaching the fence.

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.

They are also major impediments to peace negotiations with the Palestinians, who see the land as part of a future independent state, and Western nations have urged Israel to halt construction.

The attack caused tensions to boil over and protesters in the West Bank city of Hebron clashed with Israeli security forces at a previously planned demonstration. The assault comes simply days after the Israeli authorities of two buildings within the West Financial institution settlement of Beit El, situated close to the town of Ramallah, after they have been declared unlawful. The US condemned the deadly arson in the strongest possible terms calling it “vicious.” The EU also expressed its condemnation saying that “it is a tragic reminder of the dramatic situation in the region that highlights the urgent need of the political solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict”. These colonies, which are often connected to each other by Jewish-only roads, are illegal under global law, although Israel disputes this.