Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has instructed security forces to use administrative detention, arrest without an immediate trial, to detain the suspected arsonists who set fire to a house in Duma on Friday resulting in the death of 18-month-old Palestinian Ali Saad Dawabsha.

A senior security official said that there is no choice but to treat the Jewish extremists suspected of having committed a hate crime against Palestinians, just as is done with Palestinians suspected of committing terror attacks.

The official said that whoever set the house on fire were sophisticated in their crimes. For example, they did not bring any mobile phones with them in order to avoid being tracked.

Administrative detention — incarceration without trial — is increasingly used by world governments to combat the threat of terror, when there is not enough evidence against a suspect to justify a criminal trial. Administrative detention is temporary in nature, but may be renewed repeatedly by the Defense Minister.

Yaalon on Friday called the arson attack which killed 18-month-old Dawabsha and seriously injured his parents and 4-year-old brother a “serious terror attack.’’

“The arson and the murder of the Palestinian baby Ali Dawabsha is a serious terror attack that cannot be tolerated, and we condemn it outright,” he said. “We will chase down the murderers until they are caught.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the swift capture of the perpetrators, apparently Jewish extremists. He ordered that the Palestinian Authority be updated on Israeli efforts to hunt down the killers.

Opposition Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog declared: ‘’If I were Prime Minister I would instruct the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to deal with Jewish terror in the same way as Islamic terror, firmly and without hesitation.’’

Thousands of people joined political leaders and President Reuven Rivlin at rallies in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa Saturday night to condemn violence in Israeli society, including the Duma attack, as well as the stabbing attack at Jerusalem’s gay pride.