Hamas Calls For #039;Day of Rage#039; After Arson Attack Kills Palestinian Baby

lt;pgt;Hamas reiterated its call for a quot;Day of Ragequot; on Friday with Israeli authorities preparing for mass protests and riots following an arson attack which killed a Palestinian baby in the West Bank village of Duma, analysts say.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;The Palestinian militant group had called for Palestinians to take to the streets following Friday prayers in a statement released on Tuesday after Israeli forces fired stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets at activists outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, on Sunday.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;In light of the murder of lt;a href=quot;https://www.newsweek.com/palestinian-toddler-killed-suspected-jewish-extremist-attack-police-331033quot; rel=quot;nofollowquot;gt;an 18-month-old babylt;/agt;, Ali Saad Dawabsha,in an arson attack carried out by suspected Jewish settlers, Hamas again extended the call for a quot;Day of Ragequot; across the Palestinian territory today, and declared all Israeli soldiers and settlers legitimate targets.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;quot;We ask our sons in the West Bank to stand vociferously against these crimes and to respond to the occupation with whatever means are at hand,quot; Hamas spokesman Abd al-Rahman Shadid wrote in a Facebook post. quot;As well [as] taking part in Friday protest marches in the Friday of Anger which will take place all over the West Bank today.quot;lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;Another Hamas spokesman, Husam Badran, said in a statement that this quot;crime makes legitimate targets out of Israeli soldiers and settlers for the resistance everywhere.quot;lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;Both Israeli and Palestinian security forces in both Jerusalem and the West Bank are on high alert to prepare for the unrest and additional Israeli forces were stationed in the territory to maintain security and prevent revenge attacks.lt;/pgt; lt;divgt;lt;!--0--gt;lt;/divgt; lt;pgt;Ron Gilran, vice-president at Tel Aviv-based geopolitical risk consultancy The Levantine Group says that the situation in the West Bank is combustible after the attack and tensions have not been at this level since last summer, in the week#039;s prior to the Gaza conflict.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;quot;This [attack] creates the most volatile and vulnerable security atmosphere in the West Bank since last June with the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir,quot; he says. quot;That#039;s the significance.quot;lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;quot;I predict that immediately after prayers we will see violent protests, rioting, clashes, especially at friction points such as checkpoints and Al-Aqsa,quot; he adds. quot;Maybe even localised lone wolf attacks.quot;lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;The arson attack on the Dawabsha home, approximately 25km southeast of the West Bank city of Nablus, saw molotov cocktails thrown into the residence at around 2 a.m. local time. The victim#039;s parents and brother were also seriously injured in the attack and have been airlifted to Israel for treatment while a second home that was firebombed had been empty at the time of the attack.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;The perpetrators sprayed Hebrew graffiti saying quot;revengequot; on the house, in what is known as a quot;price tagquot; attack. These attacks are acts of vandalism carried out against the Palestinian population or the Israeli authorities in retaliation for actions deemed to harm their settlement enterprise.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the murder as quot;reprehensiblequot; and quot;horrificquot; and promised to quot;use all meansquot; to bring the attackers to justice.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;quot;This is an act of terrorism in every respect. The State of Israel takes a strong line against terrorism regardless of who the perpetrators are,quot; he said.lt;/pgt; lt;divgt;lt;!--1--gt;lt;/divgt; lt;pgt;However, both the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, in control of the Gaza Strip, blamed the attack on Israel.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;The Palestinian leadership held Israeli government quot;fully responsible for the brutal assassinationquot; of Dawabsha because it was a quot;direct consequence of decades of impunityquot; given by the government to quot;settler terrorismquot;, Palestinian chief negotiator Dr. Saeb Erekat said in a statement.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;The attack came just days after Israel#039;s Supreme Court ordered the demolition on Wednesday of two buildings in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, which lies less than 20km from the village of Duma where the arson attack occurred, as they were built on private Palestinian land without permits.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;The decision sparked clashes between right-wing settlers and Israeli police on Tuesday and Wednesday and uproar from far-right parties in Netanyahu#039;s ruling coalition. In response, the Israeli leader sanctioned 300 further settlement units in the Beit El settlement and 500 in east Jerusalem.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;Following the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza after its victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, more than 500,000 Jewish settlers have created and moved into over 100 settlements. The outposts are considered illegal under international law by the United Nations but Israel disputes their illegality.lt;/pgt; lt;pgt;In 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Council lt;a href=quot;http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44045#.VOzBl_msVqIquot; rel=quot;nofollowquot;gt;presented a reportlt;/agt; claiming that Israel repeatedly violated international law in its policy of settlement creation and requested a removal of all of the West Bank#039;s settlers and to quot;cease all settlement activities without preconditions.quot; Israel did not cooperate with the council on the matter and Yigal Palmor, the spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time, dismissed the report as giving quot;Israel a raw deal.quot;lt;/pgt;