Thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral on Saturday, August 8, of Saad Dawabsha, who died early that morning from wounds sustained during an arson attack in the village of Duma in the district of Nablus nine days earlier. Israeli extreme-right settlers are believed to be responsible for the arson attack on July 31, which also killed Dawabsha’s 18-month-old son, Ali, and critically injured his wife, Riham, and their four-year-old son, Ahmad.
MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash – Joint List) during a visit at the house of Dawabsha family, in the village of Duma (Photo: Al Ittihad)
The funeral procession started from Duma village and ended more than three kilometers away at the Duma cemetery, where the father of the Dawabsha family was laid to rest. During the procession, mourners chanted calls for revenge for the death of Dawabsha and his 18-month-old son, Ali. Many Palestinian officials, members of the Fatah Central Committee, and representatives of other Palestinian national parties participated in the funeral, raising Palestinian flags and the flags of Palestinian political parties.
In response to the arson attack, the Palestinian Authority (PA) filed a report on settler violence on August 3 with the International Criminal Court. PA sources insisted that Dawabsha’s autopsy was complete and that all legal and medical procedures needed for the submission of the arson case’s file to the ICC had been taken. Dawabsha’s wife and son remain in critical condition at Tel Hashomer hospital in Israel.
Israeli settlers have carried out at least 120 attacks on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank since the start of 2015, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Attacks by settlers are often carried out under the armed protection of Israeli forces who rarely make efforts to protect Palestinians from such attacks.
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