Father of Palestinian toddler killed in arson attack dies of wounds

The father of a Palestinian toddler killed in an arson attack on his home a week ago died on Saturday of wounds sustained in the fire.

Suspected Jewish attackers torched the home of Saad Dawabsheh in the West Bank village of Duma on July 31, killing his 18-month-old child and seriously injuring his wife and a second son, an act that Israel's prime 
minister described as terrorism.

A spokeswoman for Soroka hospital in Israel where Dawabsheh had been receiving treatment said he died early on Saturday. Hundreds of Palestinians rallied at Dawabsheh's funeral in Duma and called on militant factions to take revenge for the deaths.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet has come under growing pressure to crack down on violent far-right Jewish groups since the attack, and the government decided to allow harsher interrogations of suspected Jewish militants with methods once reserved for Palestinian detainees. It also said it would start detaining citizens suspected of political violence against Palestinians without a trial, another practise previously used only on Palestinian suspects.

The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, called for the attackers to be brought swiftly to justice. "Political, community and religious leaders on all sides should work together and not allow extremists to escalate the situation and take control of the political agenda," he said in a statement.