The pictures of the infant victim of 'Jewish terror' are heart-breaking

In the early hours of Friday morning, suspected Jewish extremists scrawled the words "revenge" and "long live the messiah" on a house in the West Bank before throwing two firebombs through its window.

Three members of the Palestinian family inside escaped but the father could not find his 18-month-old son Ali Saad Dawabsha amid the smoke. The infant is thought to have been burned alive.

In a series of tweets, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the arson attack was an act of terror.

The Israel Defence Forces vowed to bring the perpetrators of the "Jewish terror" attack to justice:

IDF forces are searching now for the suspects and are doing everything they can to bring them to justice as quickly as possible.

The IDF views this action as terrorist activity and strongly condemns all terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria, including Jewish terror. The IDF and the security agencies will continue to work towards maintaining order and security in Judea-Samaria.

In the UK, Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood said:

The UK strongly condemns today's horrific attack by Israeli settlers that resulted in the death of a Palestinian child. This was a brutal act of terrorism, as recognised by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. We call on the Israeli authorities to ensure that those responsible for this crime are brought swiftly to justice. We also call on political and community leaders on all sides to do their utmost to promote calm.

Netanyahu phoned Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas to condemn the attack, but the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the dominant body in the West Bank, said it found the Israeli government "fully responsible for the brutal assassination".

Around 500,000 Jewish people live in 100 settlements built in the West Bank since the 1967 occupation. They are regarded as illegal under international law but Israel rejects this assessment.

Last summer copycat revenge attacks between Jews and Palestinians escalated into a conflict between the Israeli military and Hamas in Gaza in which 2,100 lives were lost.

(Pictures: EPA/AFP/Getty)

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