A PALESTINIAN TODDLER was burnt to death in an arson attack by suspected Jewish settlers on homes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, sparking clashes in which a teenager was shot and died Saturday.
The Friday arson attack, which also critically wounded the toddler’s parents and brother, stoked running tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, sparking protests by hundreds of people and sporadic clashes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the firebombing “an act of terrorism in every respect” and made a rare telephone call to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
But the Palestine Liberation Organisation said it held his government “fully responsible”.
The death of 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha was “a direct consequence of decades of impunity given by the Israeli government to settler terrorism”, the PLO said.
Abbas said he had ordered his foreign minister to file a complaint at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
“We want true justice, but I doubt that Israel will provide that,” he said of the attack in Duma, near the northern city of Nablus.
The US State Department condemned the “vicious terrorist attack” in “the strongest possible terms,” urging Israel to “apprehend the murderers” and calling on both sides to “avoid escalating tensions”.
In the clashes that followed the youngster’s death, Palestinians said 14-year-old Laith Khaldi was wounded by live fire north of Ramallah and died hours later in hospital.
The Israeli army said Khaldi was shot after throwing a Molotov cocktail at forces at a checkpoint.
The Israeli force said troops shot and wounded another protester in the city of Hebron as clashes spread after weekly prayers in West Bank mosques.
Several thousand people took to Duma’s streets for the funeral of the toddler, whose body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag.
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