Funeral held for father of Palestinian baby killed in arson attack

Palestinians have held a funeral ceremony for Sa’ad Dawabsheh, a Palestinian man who lost a baby in an arson attack by Israeli settlers against his home in the occupied West Bank and who himself died of wounds sustained in the same attack.

On Saturday, thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in the West Bank town of Duma, near Nablus, to attend the funeral ceremony of Dawabsheh, whose 18-month-old baby boy, Ali, was also burnt to death in the arson attack.

The 32-year-old victim died at a medical center early on Saturday.

He had been left with second-degree burns over more than 80 percent of his body following the late July firebombing of his house. His wife, Riham, and four-year-old son Ahmad – also injured in the same attack – remain in critical condition in hospital.

Hamas urges ‘open confrontation’

Meanwhile, the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas vowed in a statement to take revenge for the cold-blooded murder of Dawabsheh and his son.

“Nothing will stop these murderous settler attacks and… we cannot wait until they come into our villages and our homes,” Hossam Badran, a spokesman of the Hamas, wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.

“Our people in the West Bank have only one choice: that of open and comprehensive confrontation against the occupation.”

The arson attack has drawn harsh criticism from across the world.

“This is a very highly emotional time for all of us Palestinians everywhere. There is a death sentence issued by the Zionist occupiers of our land for all of us. None of us Palestinians is safe in Gaza, in the West Bank, in the refugee camps. Anywhere, we are hunted and we are killed,” Palestinian writer and activist Jafar M. Ramini (seen below) told Press TV from London.

Ramini also lashed out at the international community for turning a blind eye to the Israeli “genocide” of Palestinians.

“The entire world community should understand this. This is a genocidal, racist, supremacist regime that is going about its deadly business meticulously and regularly. They keep killing, they keep destroying, they keep imprisoning and nobody tries to put an end to it,” he added.

According to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Israeli settlers have carried out over 11,000 attacks on Palestinians and their property since 2004.