Palestinian family found unconscious inside home after tear gas attack

A Palestinian family were reportedly left unconscious when suspected Israeli settlers attacked their home with tear gas overnight Monday.

Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld confirmed graffiti and a gas canister were found at the home in a village near Ramallah.

Rosenfeld said they were investigating the case as a “criminal incident with nationalistic motives.”

Palestinian news agency Ma’an quoted eyewitnesses as saying that neighbors had to break open the door of the home to save the family, who were found unconscious after being targeted by three gas canisters.

The graffiti reportedly read “Revenge” and “Greetings, from prisoners of Zion”, leading Israeli media to link the incident to a recent controversy surrounding the detention of Israeli settlers suspected of an arson attack that killed three members of the Palestinian Dawabsheh family, including an 18-month-old baby, earlier this year.

The suspects’ lawyer has claimed in recent days that they have been tortured by Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet in order to extract a confession.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed Shin Bet, saying “no one has deviated from the rules” in the investigation.

Shin Bet requested more time to interrogate the suspects after Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said last week that there was not yet enough evidence to prosecute them.

The July attack in the village of Duma, near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, sparked outrage among Palestinians and the long delay in justice has been considered a factor behind recent violence that has killed at least 129 Palestinians and 22 Israelis or foreigners since Oct. 1.

Despite the ongoing interrogation of the suspects, whose identities have not been revealed, the Dawabsheh family told Anadolu Agency in November that they do not have faith in the Israeli justice system.

According to Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, there have been more than 1,000 “ideologically-motivated” attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2005, with police not charging suspects in 90 percent of cases.

Images by Anadolu Agency.