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18-Month-Old Boy Burned to Death in West Bank Laid to Rest

Eighteen-month-old boy burned to death in West Bank laid to rest.

ByABC News
July 31, 2015, 3:31 PM

DUMA, West Bank— -- It’s the tiniest grave in the village’s cemetery, just big enough for a bundle nearly two feet long.

PHOTO: Laid to rest Friday, a tiny grave for 18 month year-old Ali Dawabsheh.
Laid to rest Friday, a tiny grave for 18 month year-old Ali Dawabsheh.

Eighteen-month-old Ali Dawabsheh burned to death after terrorists attacked his family today in the Palestinian village of Duma, near Nablus. Palestinian officials blame Jewish extremists and the attackers left the word “revenge” in Hebrew spray-painted on the house, suggesting a so-called “price tag” attack.

PHOTO: he toddler’s baby bottle was found in the family’s house, still full of milk.
he toddler’s baby bottle was found in the family’s house, still full of milk.

Ali’s uncle, Wisam Dawabsheh, told ABC News the attackers approached the village in the early hours of Friday and knocked on the windows of the Dawabsheh house. The attackers then hurled molotov cocktails into the room where Ali was sleeping, setting fire to the whole house. By Friday night, the Palestinian Justice Ministry autopsy report found soot inside the toddler’s body, confirming he was alive and breathing when he caught fire.

PHOTO: Within hours of his death, posters with 18 month year-old Ali Dawabsheh’s face were printed and passed out ahead of Friday’s funeral.
Within hours of his death, posters with 18 month year-old Ali Dawabsheh’s face were printed and passed out ahead of Friday’s funeral.

Just hours after Ali’s death, villagers handed out posters swiftly printed and plastered with Ali’s face ahead of the funeral. The attack recalled the brutal killing of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir who was burned alive in July 2014 by Jewish extremists. Protesters hit the streets following Abu Khdeir’s murder, chanting “Intifada! Intifada!”

Today, there were reports of light clashes throughout the West Bank but no widespread violence.

PHOTO: Men praying at Duma’s main mosque ahead of Ali Dawabsheh’s funeral.
Men praying at Duma’s main mosque ahead of Ali Dawabsheh’s funeral.
PHOTO: The funeral procession in Duma carried the toddler’s body from the mosque to the village cemetery.
The funeral procession in Duma carried the toddler’s body from the mosque to the village cemetery.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah spoke at the funeral today, urging the international community to defend Palestinians as hundreds of men stood in the midday heat, crying and praying to witness the tiny body laid to rest.

Ali’s 4-year-old brother, Ahmad and his parents, Saad, 32, and Riham, 27, remain in critical condition at hospitals in Israel.