A court charged two Israelis on Sunday over a firebombing last year that killed a Palestinian couple and their toddler, in an attack that sparked condemnation globally.
A court charged two Israelis on Sunday over a firebombing last year that killed a Palestinian couple and their toddler, in an attack that sparked condemnation globally.
The charges are the first step in a legal case whose slow progress rights groups have criticised.
They come more than five months after the pre-dawn attack on the Dawabsha family home in the West Bank village of Duma that killed 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha, and fatally wounded his parents.
His brother, who was four at the time of the attack on July 31, was the sole survivor from the immediate family.
Amiram Ben-Uliel, 21, from the northern settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank, was charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, arson and conspiracy to commit a hate crime, said the Israeli court indictment.
A 17-year-old, who remained unnamed under a gag order, was charged with being an accessory to committing a racially-motivated murder.
Ben-Uliel and the minor, who lived in another wildcat settlement near Duma at the time, in July 2015 plotted to avenge a Palestinian shooting dead Malachi Rosenfeld near Shilo one month earlier, a statement from the justice ministry said.
The attack drew renewed attention to Jewish extremism and accusations Israel had not done enough to prevent such violence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labelled it “terrorism” — a word usually used by Israelis to refer to violence committed by Palestinians.
Israel came under heavy pressure to try those responsible, with rights groups questioning the delay in the case and contrasting it to the swift reaction often following Palestinian attacks.
