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THE mother of the Palestinian family whose home was firebombed by Israeli settler extremists five weeks ago died of her burns yesterday.
Reham Dawabsheh died in the early hours, relative Hatem Dawabsheh said, after suffering burns to 90 per cent of her body in the horrific July 31 attack.
Her 18-month-old son Ali was burnt to death in his bed when the culprits firebombed their house in the West Bank village of Duma as they slept.
Hebrew graffiti sprayed on the walls, including “revenge” and “price tag,” pointed the finger at extremists from illegal Israeli settlements.
In Britain, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) called the attack “nothing short of terrorism” and urged the world to wake up to Israel’s violence in Palestine after Ms Dawabsheh’s husband died of his injuries on August 8.
The mother’s death leaves their four-year-old son Ahmad an orphan as he fights for his life against 60 per cent burns.
Another relative, Amjad Dawabsheh, told Israeli Army Radio that the family had not yet told Ahmad that the rest of his family was dead.
“How can we tell him: ‘Your father and mother and brother died’?” he asked.
Young Israeli settlers have staged many so-called “price tag” attacks on Palestinians in revenge for real or perceived attacks on Israel or its outposts in the occupied territories.
Days before the attack, Israeli forces had cleared protesting settlers out of a former British army fort at Sa-Nur in the West Bank.
UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov voiced concern at Israel’s failure to arrest any suspects, calling for justice for the Dawabsheh family.
Three prominent settler youth leaders were jailed for six months without trial under “administrative detention” powers following the attack.
But research by Israeli human rights group Yesh Din found that between 2005 and 2014, 83 per cent of cases of settler violence went uninvestigated by Israeli authorities, creating a culture of impunity.
“Israel’s settlers run rampant in the West Bank, attacking children as well as adults, sometimes fatally, firebombing mosques, desecrating cemeteries, burning olive groves and killing farm animals,” said PSC director Sarah Colborne.
• The PSC has called a demonstration outside Downing Street tomorrow against a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Protesters will gather from 11am to 1pm.
