Israel announces arrests in deadly arson attack on Palestinian family in West Bank

Israeli security services confirmed Thursday that several Jewish youths have been arrested recently over their alleged involvement in an arson attack that killed three members of a Palestinian family in July.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said that the suspects, whose names were not disclosed, are currently under custody and are suspected of belonging to "a Jewish terrorist organization and of carrying out terrorist attacks."

She added that the detainees are suspected of perpetrating the deadly arson attack on the family home of the Dawabsheh family in the village of Duma in the West Bank on July 31.

According to Israeli media, the suspects are hard-line young settlers, belonging to the so-called "hilltop youths," groups of settlers youths who were accused in recent years of thousands of cases of vandalism and arson attacks on mosques, churches, and Palestinian property.

Other details of the investigation, which involves the Israel Police, the Shin Bet security service and the Office of the State Prosecutor, are under a gag order, Samri said.

The announcement was made following growing international pressures for arrests of suspects of the gruesome murder, which claimed the lives of 18-month-old baby Ali and seriously injured his parents, who died several days after the attack. The only survivor, four-year-old Ahmed, is still hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center in central Israel.

On Wednesday, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process, Nickolay Mladenov, voiced his concern due to the standstill in the investigation of the attack, saying it is "essential" that Israeli security forces decipher the affair and bring those responsible to justice.

"Four months have passed since the arson attack... a tragedy that has angered Palestinians and shocked Israelis," Mladenov said in a statement sent by his Jerusalem office.

"The incident, which was widely condemned by leaders on all sides, regrettably, has still not been resolved. I am concerned by the slow progress and call on Israelis authorities to move swiftly in bringing the perpetrators of this terrible crime to justice," Mladenov added.

Also on Thursday, a Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers after he shot Israelis near the Hizme checkpoint, north of Jerusalem, a military spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, the Palestinian, whose identity was not immediately clear, stopped at the checkpoint and shot forces at the site. He lightly wounded a soldier and a 47-year-old Israeli civilian, before Israeli troops shot him dead.

The Palestinian health ministry also confirmed that the Palestinian shooter was killed.

The incident was the latest in a two-month-long wave of violence in Israel and the West Bank, which so far claimed the lives of more than 100 Palestinians and 19 Israelis. Endit