18-Month-Old Boy Burned to Death in West Bank Laid to Rest

DUMA, West Bank— -- It’s the tiniest grave in the village’s cemetery, just big enough for a bundle nearly two feet long.

Eighteen-month-old Ali Dawabsheh burned to death after terrorists attacked his family today in the Palestinian village of Duma, near Nablus. Palestinian officials blame Jewish extremists and the attackers left the word “revenge” in Hebrew spray-painted on the house, suggesting a so-called “price tag” attack.

Ali’s uncle, Wisam Dawabsheh, told ABC News the attackers approached the village in the early hours of Friday and knocked on the windows of the Dawabsheh house. The attackers then hurled molotov cocktails into the room where Ali was sleeping, setting fire to the whole house. By Friday night, the Palestinian Justice Ministry autopsy report found soot inside the toddler’s body, confirming he was alive and breathing when he caught fire.

Just hours after Ali’s death, villagers handed out posters swiftly printed and plastered with Ali’s face ahead of the funeral. The attack recalled the brutal killing of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir who was burned alive in July 2014 by Jewish extremists. Protesters hit the streets following Abu Khdeir’s murder, chanting “Intifada! Intifada!”

Today, there were reports of light clashes throughout the West Bank but no widespread violence.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah spoke at the funeral today, urging the international community to defend Palestinians as hundreds of men stood in the midday heat, crying and praying to witness the tiny body laid to rest.

Ali’s 4-year-old brother, Ahmad and his parents, Saad, 32, and Riham, 27, remain in critical condition at hospitals in Israel.