NOVANEWS
A Palestinian shows damages inside a house that was fired overnight by suspected Jewish extremists in an apparent revenge attack on November 14, 2013 in Sinjil, a village in the West Bank, northeast of Ramallah. (Photo: AFP – Abbas Momani)
Published Thursday, November 14, 2013
Israeli forces Thursday arrested two Palestinians linked to a teenager suspected of killing an Israeli soldier, as five Palestinian children suffered from smoke inhalation when suspected Jewish extremists set fire to their West Bank home on Thursday in an apparent “price tag” attack.
The attackers torched the front of the Dar Khalil family’s home in Sinjil, a village northeast of Ramallah, and spray-painted the words “Regards from Eden, Revenge!” in Hebrew in blue on a wall outside the house.
“Eden” is an apparent reference to Eden Atias, a soldier who was killed on Wednesday by a 16-year-old Palestinian on a bus in northern Occupied Palestine.
On Thursday, Israeli troops detained the brother and a friend of the stabbing suspect, relatives told Ma’an news agency.
A large Israeli military force raided the home of Hussein Sharif Ghawadra after midnight, damaging the main gate of the property and releasing sound bombs, Ghawadra’s father said.
“The Israeli army treated all of us in an aggressive way, and wreaked havoc in the house. They destroyed the windows and the doors. They removed the water tanks, and detained my son Mutasem, who is a university student. They also detained Hussein’s friend, Jamil Mohammad Ghawadra and assaulted my wife, my son Tawfiq, and I.”
Israeli forces also threatened to demolish the home, according to Ghawadra’s father, and asked the family to remove all of their furniture from the house.
Ghawadra allegedly told Israeli police that he had killed the soldier in retaliation for the imprisonment of numerous relatives. Four of his cousins are serving life sentences in Israeli prisons.
The Dar Khalil family who was attacked by settlers had no apparent connection to the Palestinian attacker.
“I woke up at 2:00 am, and four or five people came out of a white car and started breaking windows, then poured gasoline, then threw fire into the house,” Ruweida Dar Khalil told AFP.
“My kids were sleeping, I was scared to death, my kids almost died, I couldn’t even touch the doorknob, it was so hot.”
Dar Khalil said the children, the eldest aged seven, were returned home after being taken to hospital.
“I need protection,” she said. “I’m scared to sleep inside my home.”
An Israeli police spokesman said an investigation had been opened.
The attack is the latest “price tag” incident, a term used by Jewish extremists carried out in pursuit of their hardline agenda.
Such attacks initially targeted Palestinians in retaliation for Israeli moves to dismantle unauthorized settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank. But they later spread to include a broader range of racist and xenophobic attacks.
Settler attacks against Palestinians and their property are routine and rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
The attackers torched the front of the Dar Khalil family’s home in Sinjil, a village northeast of Ramallah, and spray-painted the words “Regards from Eden, Revenge!” in Hebrew in blue on a wall outside the house.
“Eden” is an apparent reference to Eden Atias, a soldier who was killed on Wednesday by a 16-year-old Palestinian on a bus in northern Occupied Palestine.
On Thursday, Israeli troops detained the brother and a friend of the stabbing suspect, relatives told Ma’an news agency.
A large Israeli military force raided the home of Hussein Sharif Ghawadra after midnight, damaging the main gate of the property and releasing sound bombs, Ghawadra’s father said.
“The Israeli army treated all of us in an aggressive way, and wreaked havoc in the house. They destroyed the windows and the doors. They removed the water tanks, and detained my son Mutasem, who is a university student. They also detained Hussein’s friend, Jamil Mohammad Ghawadra and assaulted my wife, my son Tawfiq, and I.”
Israeli forces also threatened to demolish the home, according to Ghawadra’s father, and asked the family to remove all of their furniture from the house.
Ghawadra allegedly told Israeli police that he had killed the soldier in retaliation for the imprisonment of numerous relatives. Four of his cousins are serving life sentences in Israeli prisons.
The Dar Khalil family who was attacked by settlers had no apparent connection to the Palestinian attacker.
“I woke up at 2:00 am, and four or five people came out of a white car and started breaking windows, then poured gasoline, then threw fire into the house,” Ruweida Dar Khalil told AFP.
“My kids were sleeping, I was scared to death, my kids almost died, I couldn’t even touch the doorknob, it was so hot.”
Dar Khalil said the children, the eldest aged seven, were returned home after being taken to hospital.
“I need protection,” she said. “I’m scared to sleep inside my home.”
An Israeli police spokesman said an investigation had been opened.
The attack is the latest “price tag” incident, a term used by Jewish extremists carried out in pursuit of their hardline agenda.
Such attacks initially targeted Palestinians in retaliation for Israeli moves to dismantle unauthorized settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank. But they later spread to include a broader range of racist and xenophobic attacks.
Settler attacks against Palestinians and their property are routine and rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
