Two masked Israeli settlers stood over their bodies, determined, Nasser Dawabshe says, to see them die. Hebrew graffiti - "Revenge" - sprayed on the wall of the Dawabshe family home. Credit:Ruth Pollard Another son, five-year-old Ahmad, was trapped behind the lounge room door, his screams rising above the roar of the inferno. A neighbour managed to get him out. Ali could not be saved. "The more we threw water on the flames the more they burned," Nasser says. Days later, three young Jewish men were arrested. They are, Israeli security services allege, involved in a violent underground movement that aims to create a Jewish kingdom. Known as "The Revolt", their plan entails using attacks against Palestinians to draw the Israel Defence Forces into a cycle of violence. One of those young men is Evyatar Slonim, a dual Australian-Israeli citizen.

The 23-year-old now sits in a small cell in a high-security wing of Eshel Prison in the city of Beersheba. Accused by Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon of "involvement in activity by an extremist Jewish group", Slonim was already the subject of a year-long "administrative ban" prohibiting him from entering the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem when he was arrested. Evyatar Slonim, an Australian under administrative detention in Israel. Meir Ettinger and Mordechai Meyer, who were arrested at the same time, are also in administrative detention. Slonim is a relative of controversial former Knesset member Rabbi Moshe Feiglin, who recently visited Australia to address synagogues in Sydney and Melbourne. Ettinger is the grandson of Meir Kahane, a militant American-Israeli rabbi and former Knesset member whose Kach movement was outlawed in Israel in the 1980s. Kahane was assassinated in 1990 but remains a hugely influential figure on Israel's far right. Hebrew graffiti that reads "long live the King Messiah", with a crown, sprayed on the wall of the Dawabshe family home. Credit:Ruth Pollard

While authorities have not directly tied the arrest of Slonim, Ettinger and Meyer to the attack in Duma, Yaalon made it clear that the government believes there is a link. In an interview with Israel's Channel 10, the defence minister said: "We wouldn't conduct these administrative arrests if there wasn't any connection to the arson." Slonim was previously arrested on suspicion of setting fire to a home in the Palestinian town of Khirbet Abu Falah in November 2014. Ettinger is believed to have been involved in the torching of the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes on the shores of the Sea of Galilee on June 17, while Meyer is suspected of an arson attack on Jerusalem's Abbey of the Dormition in May 2014. Meir Ettinger (left) and Evyatar Slonim, both in administrative detention in Israel for their alleged membership of Jewish extremist group The Revolt. Credit:EPA Through their lawyers, all three deny any involvement in the attacks. The investigation into the Dawabshe murders remains under a gag order in Israel. Rebellious youth in the hills

The entrance to the settlement of Kokhav HaShahar, in the central area of the occupied West Bank. An illegal outpost near here was raided by security forces investigating the Duma arson attack. Credit:Ruth Pollard Slonim has been involved in attacks against Palestinians for years, according to court documents seen by Fairfax Media. He is believed to have been part of the extremist group known as the Hilltop Youth, from which security sources believe The Revolt was formed. A child's burnt clothing and belongings can still be seen on the floor of the Dawabshe family home. Ali Dawabshe's name is written in Arabic on the wall. Credit:Ruth Pollard The Hilltop Youth refuse to acknowledge the authority of the state, the military or their parents. They feel betrayed by the mainstream settler movement which is working – in contravention of international law and with the full support of Israel's government – to establish a permanent Jewish presence throughout the occupied West Bank.

And in recent years they have been, according to Israeli security sources, the main perpetrators in the so-called "price tag" attacks against churches, Palestinian civilians and even Israeli military personnel. The golden Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. Credit:Getty Images The "price tag" is graffiti left at the scene as a message that there is a price to be paid for actions against the settler movement, such as carrying out court-ordered demolitions of settler outposts. At the Dawabshe house, the graffiti in Hebrew reads "Revenge" and "long live the King Messiah". A Star of David and a crown are drawn next to the phrases. The Dawabshe family say they have no idea why they were targeted. But a manual saved on a thumb drive found on one of Slonim's co-accused by the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, provides some insight into the plans of The Revolt. A road through the hills of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, near one of the outposts raided by security forces investigating the attack on the Dawabshe family. Credit:Ruth Pollard

In their creation of a Jewish kingdom, all non-Jews would be expelled and a third temple would be built on the Temple Mount, where al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock stand today, forming Islam's third-holiest site. "The starting point of the Revolt is that the State of Israel has no right to exist, and therefore we are not bound by the rules of the game," the thumb-drive manifesto reads. It goes on in chilling detail to provide a how-to guide for firebombing Palestinian homes or mosques. "We prefer to use firebombs with our friends so provide yourself with: a molotov cocktail, preferably a litre-and-a-half, lighter, gloves, masks, metal bar/hammer, bag to carry all those," the manual reads. "Come to the village and there look for a home with an open door or open window without bars … Simply breaking a glass door or window … turn on [ignite] the fire bomb and throw it in. "In order not leave the possibility of escape, burning tyres can be placed at the entrance of the house." Encounters with security services

Slonim has been under the gaze of the Shin Bet since at least 2010, court documents indicate. He was arrested on December 30, 2010, at the entrance to the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba and found in possession of a knife, tools for housebreaking and a spray can. He had this equipment, police told the court, "for the purpose of committing a crime or causing a disturbance against Palestinians". In March 2011 he was arrested again, this time for throwing stones. Court documents indicate he was held for interrogation for eight days. On another occasion he was accused of attacking a police officer. By March 2015, after months of suspicion over his involvement in the Khirbet Abu Falah attack, he was given an "administrative ban" by the District Court prohibiting him from entering Jerusalem or the West Bank, his lawyer says.

When he was arrested in early August, Slonim's parents told Israeli media their son was with them on a family holiday in the north of the country at the time of the Duma attack. Taking the gloves off For the last four months criminal lawyer Aharon Rose has represented Slonim, his fees paid not by the young man's parents but by the right-wing legal centre Honenu, which assists settlers and soldiers who fall foul of the law. "In August 2015 … after the burning of the house in Duma in which three people from the same family died, the intelligence agencies decided to take the gloves off," Rose says in his office in Tel Aviv. He is referring to the extraordinary decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet to approve the use of administrative detention – imprisonment without charge – for Israeli citizens.

Israel already holds hundreds of Palestinians in administrative detention, despite trenchant criticism from local and international rights groups. Slonim is now four months into a six-month stint in prison. Under administrative detention inmates are not charged, nor are they or their lawyers given an opportunity to respond to the allegations against them. In September, Moshe Yaalon said security services knew who had carried out the attack on the Dawabshe family but could not charge them due to a lack of evidence and fear of compromising intelligence sources. Both Rose and Slonim's parents, Gila and Zeev Slonim, have spoken out repeatedly against the use of administrative detention. "Evyatar was not involved in any violent incident whatsoever, not at all and not specifically in Duma," Rose says.

Slonim breached the travel ban imposed on him once, Rose admits, to take part in a wedding at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. "Security at the court say they knew what he was doing every second of every day … so they must also know he did not participate in any violence at that time," Rose adds. Slonim has received a visit from Australian consular officials while in prison, Rose confirms. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade would not comment on Slonim's case, nor would the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv. Fairfax Media made contact with his parents, who moved to Israel from Melbourne in 1989 and now live in the settlement of Tzofim. We were directed to a family spokesman who explained that the gag order placed on the case prevented the Slonims from commenting. Instead, a family member who did not want to be identified answered emailed questions via the spokesman. A family's fears Evyatar Slonim was born in Israel and went to schools in the northern part of the occupied West Bank which Jewish residents call Samaria or the Shomron – home to 29 illegally-built Israeli settlements.

According to the family member, "[Evyatar] has pursued higher Torah learning which is very common for religious young men in Israel. "In addition, he studies equine therapy (horse riding therapy), in which he has a diploma. He completed his qualifications with the highest accolades from his teachers." Slonim's parents see their son once a fortnight for 30 minutes, speaking to him through a perspex barrier via telephones inside Eshel Prison. "Regardless of how long they hold him under these horrendous conditions and how much pressure they place him under it will be of no benefit in solving the crime of Duma or any other crime that they try to associate with him as Evyatar is innocent," the family member says. "We are absolutely horrified that in a democratic country [Evyatar] has been imprisoned without a trial." When I asked how Slonim came to be under surveillance by the Shin Bet, his family member replied: "We wonder the same ourselves.

"I am concerned that something sinister could be going on and we may be looking at some sort of Agent X situation," the family member said, referring to the case of another dual Australian-Israeli citizen, Ben Zygier. Zygier, also known as Prisoner X, killed himself while in solitary confinement in Israel in 2010. He was believed to have been an operative for Israel's national intelligence agency, Mossad. 'Wake people up' Shlomo Fischer of the Jerusalem-based Jewish People Policy Institute is an expert on radical Jewish extremism. He says violence such as that committed against the Dawabshe family stems from the perpetrators' belief that they are acting on the "voice of God". Their goals are to "create chaos and undermine the ability of the government to rule and set up a revolutionary redemptive state".

"They want to replace the current State of Israel with something else – their main animosity, just like al-Qaeda directing their animosity to the non-jihadist Muslim regimes, is against the government of Israel. "They are very aware of the fact that they will be treated with kid gloves because they are Jewish – that has been the precedent until now." As Ettinger wrote on his blog: "The closer we bring the conflict the better it will be for the people of Israel and the land of Israel. Everyone will find many ways to wake people up and act and explain why the land should be left exclusively for Jews." Hagit Ofran of Israeli NGO Peace Now says that the discriminatory character of Israel's settlements in the West Bank has a strong impact on those children raised in them. Credit:Ruth Pollard The concept of redemption in Judaism – the liberation of Jews from exile for the end of days – is central to the beliefs of the Hilltop Youth, says Hagit Ofran, the director of the Israeli NGO Peace Now's Settlement Watch project.

The national-religious right in Israel sees the state's existence as an integral part of redemption, but to the Hilltop Youth the Sharon government's 2005 "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank – involving the removal of thousands of settlers – was a huge blow. "When the disengagement happened, it was as if the state turned its back on the redemption process," Ofran says. "Some or most of the settlers said 'OK, we need to work harder on the State of Israel … to continue the fight'. "[But] the Hilltop Youth said … 'the redemption will happen even if the State of Israel is not here'." This violent group numbers only in the hundreds, no more than 1000, says Ofran, but they account for much of the violence perpetrated against Palestinians in the West Bank. "The settlements are based on discrimination – the fact that you raise children in a place where you as an Israeli Jew have rights and Palestinians do not have rights and are instead living under military law, this raises people to believe they are more than the others."

'It has made us more determined' Four months after settlers threw firebombs into the Dawabshe home as the family slept, the residents of Duma are struggling to face their loss. Hassan Dawabshe, left, the brother of Riham Dawabshe, and Nasser Dawabshe, the brother of her husband Saad, in the house where the couple and their son were fatally wounded in an arson attack. Credit:Ruth Pollard Riham's brother Hassan, 31, unlocks the front door of the house that sits on the edge of town. An old olive tree still grows outside, untouched by the flames. The prognosis for five-year-old Ahmad, who has burns to 60 per cent of his body, is harrowing. "The doctors tell us there will be skin grafts, plastic surgery and physiotherapy for at least the next 10 years," Hassan says.

The little boy has not been told that he is the sole survivor of the fire. "Ahmad is the only thing keeping the family from falling apart," Hassan says. "We are afraid that the small progress he has made will be destroyed by the news." Hassan's brother-in-law Nasser, a 42-year-old teacher, says the attack was one of many attempts to force Palestinians from their land. "It has only made us more determined to seek our freedom and independence," he says. "The Netanyahu government supports these settlement groups all the way up to the most senior members of the cabinet," he says. "They are the ones who encourage terrorism against our people." On December 3, the Shin Bet announced they had arrested "several Israelis" in connection with the Duma attack.

Fairfax Media contacted the Ministry of Defence and the office of the Defence Minister with a set of questions regarding the administrative detention of Evyatar Slonim and the investigation into the attack on the Dawabshe family. We did not receive a response by the time of publication.