Ref: 11/2011
Israeli settlers gravely escalated their attacks on Palestinian
civilians and on their property in the West Bank. In the evening of 28 February
2011, a
group of settlers threw two Molotov cocktails at the home of Warda Damdi and a
third Molotov cocktail at the car belonging to one of her sons in a village in
Nablus. The children’s room in the house and the front part of the targeted car
were set on fire as a result. Two of the residents suffered smoke inhalation
while two children escaped from almost certain death thanks to the fact that
they were sleeping out of their room.
According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for
Human Rights (PCHR) and testimonies provided by eyewitnesses, a group of
settlers from Yitzhar settlement approached the house of Warda Hassan Yousef
Damdi in al-Hawooz area in the southwest of Hawwara village, south of Nablus
city. The settlers destroyed the windows of the children’s bedroom on the
ground floor of the three-storey house and threw a Molotov cocktail inside the
room, which was set on fire as a result. The residents of the house rushed to
extinguish the fire. In the meantime, Rabi Taha Ahmed Damdi, the son of the
house owner, saw a settler lighting another Molotov cocktail and throwing it
inside the room. He immediately extinguished it with a blanket. Approximately
thirty minutes later, a fire truck from the Palestinian Civil Defense in nearby
Bourin village arrived at the scene and extinguished the remainder of the fire.
The contents of the room were fully destroyed by the fire. Rabi Taha Ahmed
Damdi and his sister-in-law, Muna Bajes, suffered smoke inhalation and were transferred
to the National Hospital in Nablus city for treatment. Before withdrawing from
the area, the settlers threw a Molotov cocktail at a Mercedes car owned by Rabi
Damdi, setting the frontal part of the car on fire. The Damdi family and their
neighbors immediately extinguished the fire. It should be noted that two
children, Majd, 5, and Mohammed, 3, were sleeping in a room in the third floor,
and not in their bedroom, at the time the room was set on fire, thus escaping
certain death.
PCHR renews its strong condemnation of such attacks committed by
Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians and their property in northern
the West Bank and:
1. Calls upon the Israeli occupation forces to
stop providing protection to settlers and covering up their crimes against
Palestinian civilians and against their property. This support encourages
settlers to continue committing more crimes.
2. Calls upon the international community to
promptly intervene and exert pressure on the government of Israel to fulfill
its obligations set forth under international law and put an end to all forms
of Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT).
3. Reminds the international community that
settlement activities constitute a war crime. Therefore, the High Contracting
Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention must assume their legal and moral
responsibilities, fulfill their obligations, ensure Israel’s respect to the
Convention and ensure the application of the Convention in the OPT in
accordance with Article 1 of the Convention.