Israeli settler convicted in arson attack that killed Dawabsheh family

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- An Israeli court convicted an Israeli settler of a 2015 arson attack that burned a Palestinian couple and their baby alive and caused severe burns for their son Ahmad, who was only 4 years old at the time of the crime.

Israeli prosecutors said Amiram Ben-Uliel chose the Dawabsheh family home and another dwelling in Duma village, near Nablus, on the assumption they were inhabited and, before firebombing them, spray-painted “Revenge” and “Long Live King Messiah” on their walls.

The arson attack killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh. His mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali’s four-year-old brother Ahmad survived with burns on his body.

The Israeli terrorist was also found guilty of two counts of attempted murder and two of arson, but was acquitted of a charge of belonging to a terrorist organisation.

A second, underaged defendant in the case entered a plea deal last year in which murder charges against him were reduced to conspiracy charges.

According to the indictment, Ben-Uliel surveilled the village with the unnamed minor, and the two agreed to carry out an attack in Duma and another in Majdal, with the aim of killing Palestinians inside their homes.

31, 2015, Ben-Uliel went to meet the underaged defendant in a cave in the illegal outpost of ‘Yashuv Hadaat’. The latter did not show up, and Ben-Uliel decided to proceed alone.

Ben-Uliel searched for a house in which there were indications of people living there. He first threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of a house whose inhabitants were not at home.

He then proceeded to Saad and Riham’s house and threw the second burning Molotov cocktail through the bedroom window where the couple and their two children were sleeping, before escaping.

Ben-Uliel is a member of the “hilltop youth” terrorist group. The settlers’ group set up more illegal outposts and carry out terrorist attacks against native Palestinians.

The latest known attack by the group was in the Jordan Valley last month when its members escaped quarantine in an Israeli military facility and attacked and contaminated a nearby village.

The group had carried out several attacks against mosques and churches in addition to other Palestinian targets but their attacks had gone unpunished.