Israel releases settlers accused of burning Palestinian family

Settlers who were investigated for burning a Palestinian house and killing a toddler and his father and seriously injuring the child’s mother and four-year-old brother in West Bank city of Nablus were released from police custody on Sunday, PLS48.net reported.

Israeli media reported that the intelligence services arrested nine settlers from two illegal settlements in the north of the occupied West Bank, very close to the village of Duma in Nablus, the home of the bereaved Palestinian family.

Haaretz said that the Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon approved six-month detentions for two settlers on Sunday for carrying out terrorist activities, but they were also released.

One of the settlers, Meir Ettinberg, is the grandson of late Israeli extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, and was accused of carrying out attacks against Palestinians in order to cause “instability” in Israel.

Two days before he was arrested, Ettinberg published an article in the Jewish Voice calling for attacks on Islamic and Christian holy sites.