Another West Bank arson victim dies

Palestinian officials said Saturday that Saad Dawabsha had succumbed to injuries sustained in an arson attack on his home in the occupied West Bank a week earlier.

Dawabsha was being treated for third-degree burns at an Israeli hospital, where a spokesperson last week described his condition as “critical.”

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official in the north of the occupied West Bank, which includes the village of Duma where Dawabsha lived with his family, said arrangements were being made with Palestinian and Israeli authorities to transfer his body for a funeral.

Nasser Dawabsha, Saad's brother, said he would be buried later on Saturday.

Dawabsha's 18-month-old son was killed in the blaze, while the child's mother and four-year-old son were critically injured in the attack. Both mother and son remain in an Israeli hospital, where a spokesperson described their condition last week as life-threatening.

'Act of terrorism'

Hebrew graffiti, including a Jewish Star of David and the words "revenge" and "long live the Messiah" was found at the scene of the fire, which occurred on July 31, leading authorities to the conclusion that the blaze had been started by Jewish extremists.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon condemned the fire at the time as an "act of terrorism."

"The fire and the murder of the Palestinian toddler is an act of terrorism," Yaalon said. "We will not allow terrorists to take the lives of Palestinians."

Clashes between Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Palestinians living in the occupied territory are not uncommon, although deaths are rare.

Attacks by Jewish extremists against Arabs are known as "price tag" violence, which refers to nationally-motivated hate crimes committed to "compensate" for actions by the Israeli government that are seen by the offenders as damaging to settlers.

The issue of expanding Israeli settlement in the West Bank has been a major factor in unrest between Israelis and Palestinians for years.

jlw/tj (AP, AFP)