Tuesday 31/7/2018 marked the third anniversary of the arson attack launched against the Dawabsha family from the village of Duma in the northern West Bank city of Nablus at the hands of Israeli settlers which led to the killing of Saad Dawabsha his wife Reham and their infant son Ali while their child Ahmad was seriously injured.
The 31 of July 2015 saw an ugly crime committed by settlers in the village of Duma in Nablus where they burned the home of the Dawabsha family at night by Molotov cocktails.
That night extremist Israeli settlers infiltrated into the village of Duma under the cover of the night and set fire to the house of the Dawabsha family. The infant Ali was killed and his parents and brother Ahmed were seriously injured. His father Saad died of injuries while the death of his mother Reham came a month after the crime took place.
Parents Saad and Reham and their infant Ali were killed due to severe burns while their four-year-old son Ahmed survived with up to 60% of his body suffering from burns.
Ahmed always runs towards his family’s burned house near his grandfather’s house trying to enter it but the doors are closed. His grandmother Rehab says: “We do not allow him to enter the house we do not want him to see the remains of the fire his brother’s toy car and what remained of his belongings. He always asks about his brother’s toy car and his belongings. He always asks about his parents.”
“Ahmad has not yet started his cosmetic treatment journey. He needs about eight years from now. His first cosmetic surgery is set on August 8 2018 the date of his father’s death” Ahmad’s grandmother noted.
The family maintains its position of demanding the punishment of the killers of its members and bringing the Israeli government and army accountable because the settlers carried out the crime under their protection as the family asserts.
The Dawabsha family brought two cases in the courts against the Israeli settlers and government; the first was against the settlers who planned and carried out the crime and it is being considered by the Central Court of Lod and a case of compensation against the Israeli government and army at the Nazareth District Court.
The court dropped the confessions of the second defendant on the grounds that his confessions were extracted under torture and his defense team demanded that he should be released and placed under house arrest because he was a minor at the time of arrest.
The court said that “the minor was not directly involved in the murder but he had ideas and intent to kill and had already committed racially motivated crimes against the Palestinians.”
Although the Israeli public prosecution is preparing to appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision to release the minor Nasr Dawabsha insists that the family has decided to boycott the Israeli judiciary as the trial sessions are viewed as staged scenarios and exchanging roles between the institutions of the occupation state which were never fair and had never been just to the Palestinian people when it comes to the crimes committed by the occupation army and settler groups.
