Five teenage boys have been arrested for their involvement in the stone-throwing incident on Route 5 earlier this month in which a toddler was critically injured, the Shin Bet security services announced on Sunday.

The suspects are aged 16 and 17 and live in Kfar Haras, near the site of the incident, according to the Shin Bet.

The child, who is hospitalized at Schneider Children's Medical Center, is fighting for her life.

The incident occurred on March 14 near Ariel in the West Bank when a truck driver braked suddenly after his vehicle was struck by a stone. The car behind him, carrying a mother and her three daughters, collided with the truck.

Adele Biton, 3, who was in the safety seat of the car, sustained a severe head injury. She was extricated from the car unconscious and without a pulse, and was operated on at Schneider.

The mother and her 6-year-old daughter, who was sitting in the back seat, suffered moderate injuries. A third daughter, age 4, sustained light to moderate injuries.

As a result of the incident, settlers began a campaign demanding that the Israel Defense Forces treat stone-throwing more seriously.

"The flawed policy that insists on not considering stone-throwing as terror, but rather as disorderly conduct, is total lawlessness," said the head of the Samaria Regional Council, Gershon Mesika.

Mesika added that in recent months there have been a growing number of cases involving stone-throwing "that received no reaction due to the politicians' restrictions on the IDF. The time has come to internalize. A stone is liable to kill. Stone-throwing should be treated as terror."

The IDF did in fact upgrade the offense from "disorderly conduct" to "popular terror," but the December ruling by the military court in Samaria makes it clear the act of throwing stones does not necessarily indicate intent to kill.

Military courts in the West Bank, which deal with hundreds of stone throwers annually, have avoided associating stone throwing with attempted murder.

In December Dahan acquitted four Palestinians who were accused of attempted murder after throwing stones at a car on Route 505. Obviously, throwing large stones at a car speeding on a highway is a dangerous action which might lead to injuries or even death, Dahan wrote, but directives over expectations and intent determine that a higher extent of probability of death is necessary in order to convict the four of a more serious offense.