UN condemns attack on Palestine Duma witness house

The United Nations has “strongly condemned” an arson attack against the house of the sole witness to an Israeli settler’s deadly attack last year against a Palestinian family.

UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Robert Piper, made the remarks in a statement released on Monday.

“I strongly condemn today’s arson attack by suspected Jewish extremists on the home of Palestinian Ibrahim Dawabsheh in the occupied West Bank village of Duma,” Piper said.
He also warned that the attack could have resulted in loss of life just as the attack against his relatives in the same village did back in late July last year.

Piper further urged “Israel, as the occupying power to investigate this incident promptly and fully” and to “bring the perpetrators to justice and to take all possible steps to ensure that vulnerable Palestinian communities” are protected.

He added that allowing “such acts to foster hatred and violence” would only result in more tragedies.

Residents say Ibrahim and his wife were awakened in the early hours of Sunday by thick smoke after attackers threw Molotov cocktails into the house, located southeast of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. They were hospitalized for smoke inhalation.

“The window was broken from the outside and flammable materials were found in the rubble,” Colonel Malek Ali, the fire department chief for the nearby city of Nablus, said.

Another relative of the family said he believed the recent attack was intended to deliver a message to the family and the village.