CAIRO: Social media users in Egypt slammed the arson attack that killed a Palestinian 18-month old baby in the West Bank Friday, comparing the attack’s perpetrators, suspected to be Jewish extremists, to the Islamic State group militants.
A group of Jewish settlers set fire to the house of the baby, Ali Saad Dawabsha, in al-Duma village, south of Nablus, while all his family members were sleeping.The baby’s parents and brother suffered severe burns. “Revenge” in Hebrew graffiti was sprayed on some of the village’s Palestinian homes.
Social media users voiced their anger at the attack, creating a hashtag #حرقوا_الرضيع (They Burned the Toddler), condemning Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
“ISIS burned a military man alive and the international media went crazy, now Zionistshave burned a Palestine baby but….,” posted @rourourania80 on Twitter.
“Israeli settlers are just #ISIS in disguise-their goals are exactly the same; to murder those unlike them and to destroy the lives of the innocent,” @Duaaaasaurus317 tweeted.
On Jan. 3, IS militants in Syria burned the Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh to death; he was captured by the group after his plane crashed in December 2014.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister and Al-Azhar have condemned the settlers’ attack. Meanwhile, Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawqi Allam said the crime violates religious principles and may increase the tension in the region.
“The death of an 18-month old Palestinian baby in an arson attack on his home in the West Bank is a tragedy — and an outrage, UNICEF condemned in a statement.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack is “despicable hate crime.” Israel President Reuven Rivlin, who visited the injured Palestinians in an Israeli hospital, commented that the government was “lenient in dealing with the Jewish terrorist phenomenon. Meanwhile, the Israeli government expand sillegal settlements in the West Bank.
The baby’s funeral was held Saturday amid angry chants. The Palestinian Authority has started procedures to file the case of Dawabsha family to the International Criminal Court, the Palestinian News Agency reported Saturday.