Israel Says No Evidence To Charge Firebomb Killers of Palestinian Family

Image by Getty Images
There is still not enough evidence available to indict the Jewish extremists allegedly responsible for the firebombing of a Palestinian home that killed an infant and his parents, Israel’s defense minister said.
Without the evidence, the military has placed several Jewish extremists in administrative detention, in which they can be held for six months at a time, renewable indefinitely, without charge.
“Once we discovered which group was responsible for the incident, and we realized that we were unable to bring them to justice, we opted for house arrests and administrative detentions,” Moshe Yaalon said Monday during a briefing to Israeli reporters, according to news reports. “I hope that soon we will solve it completely. “The group responsible is made up of Jewish fanatics who want a religious kingdom and regime based on Jewish law.”
Yaalon noted that there have been no serious attacks on Palestinian targets since the arrests and detentions.
Ali Dawabsheh, 18 months, was killed in the July 31 attack in the West Bank village of Duma. His father, Saad, died a week later of his injuries and his mother, Reham, died more than a month later. His 4-year-old brother, Ahmed, was seriously burnt but survived the attack.
Days after the attack, Israel’s Security Cabinet authorized the Shin Bet security service to use “all means at their disposal” to find the perpetrators of the firebombing.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward In first Sunday address, Pope Leo XIV calls for ceasefire in Gaza, release of hostages
-
Fast Forward Huckabee denies rift between Netanyahu and Trump as US actions in Middle East appear to leave out Israel
-
Fast Forward Federal security grants to synagogues are resuming after two-month Trump freeze
-
Fast Forward NY state budget weakens yeshiva oversight in blow to secular education advocates
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.