Relatives of victims of 2015 arson attack in West Bank file lawsuit against Israel

Relatives of a Palestinian family, who perished in a 2015 arson attack by Israeli settlers in a village in the occupied West Bank, have filed a lawsuit against the Israeli regime for damages.

The deadly incident occurred in the Duma village, some 25 kilometers southeast of Nablus on July 31, 2015, when at least four Israeli settlers threw firebombs and Molotov cocktails into two Palestinian houses, setting them ablaze while their inhabitants were asleep.

The arson attack killed 18-month-old baby, Ali Dawabsheh, and critically wounded his father and mother, Sa’ad and Riham, who later succumbed to their injuries. Ali’s four-year-old brother, Ahmad, who was also wounded in the assault, remained the sole survivor of the ill-fated family.

In the wake of the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident a “terrorist attack” and vowed to punish the perpetrators, apparently condemning the assault. However, according to the Israeli rights group, B’Tselem, the pledge only amounted to “empty rhetoric.”

It was only on January 3, 2016 that an Israeli court indicted two of the arrested suspects in the Duma firebombing, including a 21-year-old West Bank settler, as the main culprit and a minor as an accessory.

However, the slow pace of the ongoing trial has exasperated the family’s relatives, who on Monday said they were suing the Tel Aviv regime for ignoring the incitement and violence of Israeli settlers.

Sa’ad’s brother, Nasser Dawabsheh, said the family had lived in a West Bank village under Israeli control and thus the regime in Tel Aviv was liable for not protecting them. He added that the relatives sought unspecified compensation for their loss.

The deadly July 2015 assault prompted an international outcry against the Israeli regime over its failure to address the acts of aggression by settlers. 

The then United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, also censured the arson attack as a “terrorist act,” calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

Back in March 20 last year, the house of Ibrahim Dawabsha, a key witness to the Duma village arson attack was also torched by Israeli settlers, while he and his family were sleeping. He, however, survived the attack, and his wife was taken to a hospital due to smoke inhalation.

Israeli settlers have carried out various attacks against Palestinian property in the West Bank and Jerusalem al-Quds under the “price tag” slogan. Such attacks include acts of vandalism and violence against Palestinians and their property as well as Islamic holy sites.

The occupied territories have been the scene of heightened tensions due to Israel’s imposition in August 2015 of restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Over 300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops since October that year, when the tensions witnessed a hike.

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