Year after Duma killings, Palestinians report fresh firebomb attack

Relative of Dawabshe family lightly hurt as home set ablaze in West Bank village; Palestinians blame Jewish terrorists, initial Israeli probe suggests local perps

By ToI Staff 20 July 2016, 8:25 am

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A Palestinian police member inspects the damage inside a burned-out house belonging to a key witness to an arson attack last year by Jewish extremists that killed a Palestinian family, in the West Bank village of Duma, after fire broke out in the home in the early hours of March 20, 2016. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

A home was set ablaze in the northern West Bank village of Duma, Palestinians reported Wednesday morning, nearly exactly a year after three members of the same extended family were killed in an alleged Jewish firebomb attack in the town.

The home belonged to the extended Dawabsha clan, which makes up a large part of the Nablus-area town’s population.

One person, homeowner Mohammed Dawabsha, was lightly injured from smoke inhalation, according to Palestinian media. No one else was reported hurt in the incident.

According to Palestinian reports, Dawabsha heard noises in the house in the early morning hours of Wednesday, after which a fire began in the house’s second story. Two Molotov cocktails were said to have caused the fire.

Family photos lie in the remains of the Dawabsha home in the West Bank village of Duma, after it was firebombed by suspected Jewish extremists on July 31, 2015. The family's 18-month-old baby was killed in the attack and his father died of his injuries eight days later, on August 8, 2015. (YouTube screen capture) — Family photos lie in the remains of the Dawabsha home in the West Bank village of Duma, after it was firebombed by suspected Jewish extremists on July 31, 2015. The family’s 18-month-old baby was killed in the attack and his father died of his injuries eight days later, on August 8, 2015. (YouTube screen capture)

Palestinians blamed Jewish attackers for the latest fire, while an initial Israeli probe into the incident suggested the context may be intra-clan rivalries in the village, Israel Radio reported.

On July 31, 2015, suspected Jewish terrorists hurled firebombs at a home in the village, killing 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha and his parents, Saad and Riham.

The attack, which also left 4-year-old brother Ahmed hospitalized with serious burns, sent shockwaves through Israeli and Palestinian society and sparked a major crackdown on anti-Palestinian activity by Jewish extremists in the West Bank.

An Israeli woman enters the burnt home of the Dawabsha family in Duma, August 2, 2015, following a terror attack the week before. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

In January, prosecutors filed indictments against two Jewish suspects in the deadly 2015 attack: 21-year-old Amiram Ben-Uliel of Jerusalem and an unnamed minor. Ben-Uliel was charged with murder.

In March, police and Shin Bet officials said a fire at the home of Ibrahim Dawabshe, a witness in the murder trials of Ben-Uliel and the second suspect, was not believed to be an arson attack by Jews.