Father of burned Palestinian baby succumbs to injuries

Saad Dawabcheh, the father of a year-and-a-half-old Palestinian boy who was burned alive by Jewish extremists last week, succumbed to his injuries in an Israeli hospital where he had been admitted, a Palestinian official said, reports the Patria News Agency.

Palestinian and Israeli authorities are cooperating to organize the transport of the body, which will be buried during the day, said Ghassan Daghlas, responsible for the north of the occupied West Bank within the Palestinian Authority. Duma, the village where the Dawabcheh family home was set on fire, is located in this area.

"Saad Dawabcheh has died. Preparations are underway for his burial in Nablus," a major city near Duma, he told AFP.

Palestinians accuse Jewish settlers of this attack, which Israeli leaders have also unanimously described as "terrorist," a rare occurrence when it comes to attacks on Palestinians. The death was also confirmed by the Dawabcheh family in Duma, seven days after the attack that shook not only the occupied territories but also Israel and the entire international community.

Before dawn on July 31, masked individuals threw Molotov cocktails into the Dawabcheh home, whose windows were open due to the heat. The small house quickly burned down, leaving only walls with the words "revenge" and "price to pay" written on them, words used for years by far-right activists and settlers in Israel and the Palestinian territories to justify aggression and vandalism against Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, or attacks on Muslim and Christian holy sites, and even against Israeli soldiers.

However, the eighteen-month-old baby was burned alive, and his mother Riham (26) and father Saad were transported to the hospital with third-degree burns covering 90 percent of their bodies.

The mother is still fighting for her life, while their other son, four-year-old Ahmed, has shown signs of improvement in recent days. Local media report that he has opened his eyes and spoken.