EU Deplores Baby Killing in Nablus, Urges Tel Aviv to End Settlers’ Violence
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The European Union (EU) called on the Israeli regime to demonstrate "zero tolerance" for the persisting settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank after an arson attack by a group of settlers killed a Palestinian toddler.
“The Israeli authorities should... take resolute measures to protect the local population. We call for full accountability, effective law enforcement and zero tolerance for settler violence,” read a Friday statement released by a spokesperson for EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
“The cold-blooded killing of Palestinian toddler Ali Dawabsha, presumably by extremist settlers... highlights the urgent need for a political solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” the statement read, Press TV reported.
Eighteen-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha was burnt to death earlier on Friday when Israeli settlers threw incendiary objects at Palestinian houses in the West Bank village of Duma, south of Nablus. The baby’s parents and his four-year-old brother were also injured in the arson attack.
The assailants reportedly came from the nearby settlement of Ma’akeg Efraim.
In its statement, the EU urged a “full and prompt investigation to bring the perpetrators of this terrible crime to justice.”
“Acts like this terrible attack can easily lead to a spiral of violence and bring both sides further away from a negotiated solution,” read the statement.
The arson attack came shortly after Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu approved 300 new settler homes in the West Bank.
“The EU reiterates its strong opposition to Israel’s settlement policy that seriously threatens the two-state solution,” the EU statement said.
Israeli settlers have carried out at least 120 attacks on Palestinians in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the West Bank since the start of 2015, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since the Israeli regime’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.