Remembering Israeli settlers burning of Dawabsheh family house, killing 3, including infant

Time: July, 31, 2015

Place: village of Duma, near Nablus, occupied West Bank

Incident: Colonial Israeli settlers attacked and burnt the Dawabsheh family house

Result: Settlers killed parents and 18-month-old baby

The Story

On July 31, 2015, 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, four-year-old Ahmad, and their parents, Saad and Riham, were reportedly sleeping when firebombs were thrown through the window of their home in the early morning, setting it ablaze.

Witnesses said that two masked Israeli settlers smashed the windows of two houses in Duma village and threw firebombs inside. One of the houses was empty, but Saad Dawabsheh’s family was in the other.

The fire killed Ali, and left Saad, his wife, Riham, and their older son, Ahmad, 4, in critical condition.

On August 8, Ali’s father Saad, who had suffered severe burns to 80 percent of his body, died of his wounds.

In September, Ali’s mother Riham also died of her injuries. Doctors at Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre, where she had been undergoing extensive treatment, told the family that she had “stopped responding to medicine and skin cultivation and that most of her organs had stopped functioning.”

Ahmad suffered burns over 60 percent of his body. He is the sole survivor of the attack, orphaned and without siblings. He was treated in the intensive care unit in Tel HaShomer Hospital for five months and underwent a total of ten surgeries, including skin grafts.

What happened next?

The settlers spray-painted the words “revenge” and “Long live the Messiah King!” on the walls of the houses before the attack.

The two extremist settlers were responsible for the attack on the Dawabsheh house, using Molotov cocktails. One settler was later named as 21-year-old Amiram Ben-Uliel; the other, a 16-year-old, could not be named for legal reasons. Ben-Uliel was believed to be part of a movement known as the “hilltop youth”, a movement of radical, ultra-nationalist Israeli settlers who sought to occupy land in the West Bank – which they believed was rightfully given to them by God – at all costs, including violence.

In January 2016, Ben-Uliel and the 16-year-old minor were indicted for carrying out the arson attack. Ben-Uliel faced charges of three counts of murder, while the minor faced charges of conspiring to commit a murder. Ben-Uliel admitted firebombing the Dawabsheh house and his involvement in six other racially-motivated attacks on Palestinian villages.

On June 21, 2018, an Israeli court threw out the confession of the 16-year-old settler. The court ruled that it had been obtained under duress and was therefore inadmissible. Omar Khamaisi, a lawyer for the Dawabsheh family, said “the minor was not accused of murder, but prior planning and plotting. His confessions and statement referring to the activities of revenge, of burning and sabotaging Palestinian properties, were taken and accepted.”

The confession of Ben-Uliel was deemed admissible, though, with the Times of Israel reporting that, “Judges determined that enough time had passed between when he was tortured and when he admitted to the crime.”

In July 2018, Israel’s Central District Court ordered the minor be released to house arrest. Ben-Uliel remains under investigation.

In May 2020, Ben-Uliel had been convicted by the Lod District Court on three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder with prosecutors saying the settler chose the Dawabsheh family house on the assumption it was inhabited.

In September 2020, the Lod District Court gave him three life sentences for the above charges, as well as 40 years over other crimes. The court also fined the settler 258,000 shekels ($74,450), to be awarded in compensation to Ahmad Dawabsheh.