Egypt calls for justice after Palestinian baby killed in firebomb attack by Israeli extremists

The Egyptian government issued a statement on Friday mourning the death of an 18-month-old Palestinian child, who was burned to death in a fire purportedly started by Israeli terrorists.

The assailants allegedly firebombed two Palestinian homes in the West Bank town of Nablus in the early hours of Friday morning. Graffiti spelling out the Hebrew words for “revenge,” “price tag” and “long live the Messiah” were found on the walls of the destroyed homes, according to the BBC.

Protests against the assault broke out in the village early Friday afternoon, sparking clashes with Israeli security forces.

The funeral for the victim began after Friday prayers, with both of the child’s parents and his four-year-old brother in critical condition, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

“The Egyptian people offer their deepest condolences to the family of the victim and to the Palestinian people, and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Badr Abdel Aty said in the statement Friday.

The father of the deceased toddler, Saad al-Dawabsh, died on Saturday morning in hospital after sustaining third degree burns over 80 percent of his body. The toddler’s mother and four-year-old brother Ahmed remain in hospital in critical condition.

Mother Reham sustained third degree burns over 90 percent of her body, while Ahmed is showing slow signs of recovery, Al-Sharwq Al-Awsat newspaper reported on Saturday. 

Israeli police arrested a suspect in the arson attack, 24-year-old right-wing Meir Ettinger, on Monday. He is the grandson of a Rabbi and founder of a banned extremist party. Local and international news published a picture of the alleged attacker smiling on his arrest.

Abdel Aty exhorted Israeli authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice, and called on the international community to provide safety and protection for the people of Palestine.

Earlier on Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would bring the case to the International Criminal Court as soon as possible, describing the violent act as a “new war crime," the privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported.

“We wake up to a new crime every day,” Abbas added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the arson as a terrorist act. “The state of Israel takes a strong line against terrorism regardless of who the perpetrators are,” he said, according to the Israeli newspaper Haartz. Netanyahu met with government officials to discuss the attack, and demanded that the Palestinian Authority be briefed on the search for the arsonists, the Times of Israel reported.

However, despite Israel’s condemnation of the incident, Palestinian authorities blame Netanyahu’s government for creating the conditions that foster such attacks.

"This is a direct consequence of decades of impunity by the Israeli government for settler terrorism," Palestinian Authority official Saeb Erekat claimed. "This is the consequence of a culture of hate, funded and incentivized by the Israeli government and the impunity granted by the international community."

More than 500 Palestinian children were killed during the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

In one incident during the operations, four Palestinian children were killed by Israeli rockets while playing football on a beach in Gaza. At the time, the Israeli defense minister denied targeting civilians and promised to investigate the tragic incident.