Israelis protest hate crimes after Palestinian baby is burned to death

Thousands of Israelis have held protests against hate crimes, as the parents and the brother of a Palestinian 18-month old baby burned to death by suspected Jewish extremists continued to fight for their lives in hospital.

18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabasha died after masked individuals reportedly threw two Molotov cocktails into his family home in Duma, near Nablus early on Friday morning. The young toddler, his parents, and his brother were sleeping during the attack, with Ali’s father able to rescue his four-year-old son, who suffered over 60 per cent to his burns, and wife Rehan, who sustained 90 per cent burns.

The attack sparked an international outcry over Israel’s failure to curb violence by hardline Jewish settlers and prompted a storm of online anger.

Israel’s defence minister confirmed the family had been taken to a hospital in nearby Nablus, but that they would be transferred to Israeli hospitals.

The child's father, was being treated for third-degree burns at the Soroka hospital in southern Israel on Saturday, where a spokeswoman described his condition as “critical”. Mother Reham and four-year-old brother Ahmed were at Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the “terror attack.” “Israel deals harshly with terrorism, no matter who the perpetrators are.”

However, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) tweeted on Friday morning that they held the Israeli government “fully responsible”.

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat called for the international community to intervene.

The family's small brick and cement home in the village of Duma was gutted by fire early on Friday morning, and a Jewish Star of David spray-painted on a wall along with the words "revenge" and "long live the Messiah".

In Tel Aviv, around 2,000 people, including an uncle of the dead Palestinian child, participated in a rally on Saturday organised by the Peace Now settlement watchdog group.

"We call on the government to take strong action against the violence of the settlers and to restart immediately the peace process," Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer told the AFP news agency.

In Jerusalem, hundreds of people gathered to protest both the West Bank arson attack and an attack on Thursday, when an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed six participants of a Gay Pride March.