Ahmed Dawabsha, the five-year-old survivor of a West Bank arson attack that killed his parents and brother last summer, will meet his favorite Spanish soccer team Real Madrid on March 17, the Palestinian Football Association says.
The July firebombing attack on the Dawabsha family in the village of Duma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha and mortally injured Ahmad’s his parents, who died in the following weeks.
Ahmed sustained second- and third-degree burns over 60 percent of his body and underwent a total of 10 surgeries, including skin grafts, in the wake of the attack.
The young boy will be accompanied during his trip to Spain by two members of his family.
Jibril Rajoub, who heads the Palestinian Soccer Federation, says in a statement that the management of one of the world’s top soccer clubs swiftly sympathized with the case of young Dawabsha after a picture of the child wearing a Real Madrid jersey in the hospital went viral.
Rajoub adds that the upcoming visit, which was coordinated with the help of the Palestinian ambassador to Spain, Kifah Udah, will “have great humanitarian dimensions advanced through the sport.”
— Times of Israel staff
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