Dawabsheh meets his hero Cristiano Ronaldo

Palestinian child Ahmed Dawabsheh, who lost his entire family in an arson attack by Jewish extremists last year, achieved his dream of meeting Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo yesterday.

Five-year-old Dawabsheh posed for photos with team players, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Marcelo Vieira and received a T-shirt with his name printed on the back and a football signed by the trio.

On 6 March, Real Madrid Football Club sent the head of the Palestinian Football Association Jibril Rajoub an invitation to host Dawabsheh at its facilities on 17 March.

According to Rajoub: “The invitation is an enormous gesture on the part of Real Madrid and Ronaldo, but we would also like to thank the anonymous soldier who contributed to the visit – Zinedine Zidane. We hope that this humanitarian gesture will help this boy, who has lost his entire family.”

Ahmed has been receiving treatment at an Israeli hospital for eight months after 90 per cent of his body with burnt in a firebomb launched by extremist settlers against his home in Duma village near Nablus, in the northern West Bank.

The firebomb first killed his 18-month-old baby brother, Ali, and then his parents, Saad and Riham.