Hamas: ‘Settlers, Soldiers’ Legitimate Targets after Infant Killing

July 31, 2015 Blog, News
Both Ali and his father, Saad died as a result of severe burns they sustained in the attack.

Palestinian political factions strongly condemned an arson attack carried out by settlers which killed a Palestinian infant on Friday, holding the Israeli leadership fully responsible for the brutal attack and calling for revenge.

Hamas said that the killing of 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha in the Nablus village of Duma makes all “Israeli soldiers and settlers legitimate targets for resistance.”

A spokesperson for the group, Hussam Badran, called for popular action in response to the killing and said Israeli crimes can only be stopped by “comprehensive resistance in all its forms.”

He also demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop “chasing fighters” and release all political detainees currently held in PA jails.

The Islamic Jihad movement condemned the attack and said the Israeli government is responsible for protecting settlers who carry out acts of “terrorism.”

“Settlers and the Israeli army’s terrorism will be faced by a Palestinian will that does not accept surrender,” a spokesperson for the group said, calling for resistance against Israeli military forces and settlers.

The West Bank’s ruling party Fatah called the infant’s killing “cowardly,” also blaming continuous incitement by the Israeli government for the “disastrous crime.”

The international community, the United Nations and the International Criminal Court have a choice between choosing the “side of rights and justice” or the side of “terrorism,” and must now hold Israel accountable, Fatah added.

Popular Resistance Committees meanwhile called for a “revolution of anger” across cities, villages and streets in Palestine and said that Israel could only be stopped by force, while the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) called on Palestinians to “escalate resistance” against Israel.

The leftist group urged Palestinians to respond to Israeli settlers and their crimes, arguing that PA security services have failed to protect Palestinians and calling on the Palestinian leadership to declare a state of emergency.

Early Friday morning, Israeli settlers smashed the windows of two homes in the Palestinian village of Duma before throwing flammable liquids and Molotov cocktails inside, a local resident told Ma’an.

Ali Saad Dawabsha, one-and-a-half years old, was trapped in the house and died shortly after sustaining serious burns.

His mother and father, Riham and Saad, and their son Ahmad, four years of age, also sustained serious injuries and were evacuated to a nearby hospital, Daghlas said, adding that their home was left completely burned.

Israeli settlers have carried out at least 120 attacks on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank since the start of 2015, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Such attacks are often referred to as “price-tag” attacks, carried out against local Palestinians in retribution perceived action against the Jewish-only settlement enterprise throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The US State Department’s 2013 Country Reports on Terrorism included price-tag attacks for the first time, and said such attacks were “largely unprosecuted.”

Palestinian villages in the Nablus governorate are subject to frequent attacks by residents of Jewish-only settlements that have gradually expanded outwards over the years under the protection of armed Israeli forces.

There are currently 12 illegal settlements and 27 settlement outposts in the Nablus area housing around 23,000 of the “most extremist settlers in the Palestinian Territory,” according to local official Ghassan Daghlas.

(Ma’an – www.maannews.net)

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