Netanyahu: This is an act of terrorism
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the murder of a 18-month-old Palestinian child is a "reprehensible and horrific act".
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the hospital bedside of the four-year-old Palestinian boy who suffered serious burns as a result of an arson by suspected Jewish extremists in the West Bank village of Duma before dawn on Friday.
In a statement released following the visit to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, the premier vowed that Israeli authorities would apprehend the perpetrators of the attack, which killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha, and left his parents and older brother with severe burn wounds.
“I just came from the bedside of four-year old Ahmed Sa’ed [Dawabsha],” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Sixty percent of his body is burned. We’re doing everything we can to save this young boy, give him a life.”
Netanyahu said that the boy’s parents, who were also seriously injured, are being given “the best treatment to save their lives.”
“When you stand next to the bed of this small child, and his infant brother had been so brutally murdered, we’re shocked, we’re outraged,” . We condemn this. There is zero tolerance for terrorism wherever it comes from, whatever side of the fence it comes from, we have to fight it and fight it together.”
The prime minister said that he spoke to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas by phone on Friday.
“I told him of this visit and of Israel’s absolute commitment to find the perpetrators and to bring them to justice,” Netanyahu said. “We have to calm the winds and recommit ourselves to our joint battle against terrorism and extremism. It’s something that all parts of the Israeli government and all parts of Israeli society agree on. It’s important that we make a common cause with our Palestinian neighbors to give ourselves a better future – a future free of violence, free of terror, a future of peace.”
Later on Friday, President Reuven Rivlin also paid a visit to Ahmed Dawabsha’s bedside.
“We awoke this morning to a day of sorrow,” Rivlin told reporters at Tel Hashomer. “I feel a sense of shame, and, moreover, a sense of pain. Pain over seeing a child, whose brother was burned, and whose parents are fighting for their lives. It is difficult to see that there are those within my people capable of such acts.”
“The shame is great, though the pain is greater,” the president said. “It must be understood by both sides that terror cannot be allowed in our region. It is not enough simply to talk about the need to fight terror – we need to fight terror. What we demand of our neighbors, from those with whom we fight, from those who have been our enemies for over a century – to bring an end to terrorism – we must also demand of ourselves.”
JPOST.COM
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