Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian baby in West Bank
Israeli soldiers killed a seven-month-old Palestinian boy after opening fire on his family’s vehicle in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
According to the ministry, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed and his family was injured while driving in the Tel Rumeida area, south of Hebron city, on Friday evening.
The official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, said the baby was seriously injured after being hit in the jaw by the same bullet that injured his mother.
He later died from his injuries.
His father, Fahd Abdul Aziz Abu Haikal, a lecturer at Bethlehem University, was shot in the hand.
The agency reported that the soldiers were on their way from Bethlehem to visit their families in Hebron when they opened fire.
The Israeli army has stepped up military operations in the West Bank since the Hamas offensive that triggered the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory military action has killed more than 72,900 Palestinians so far, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, is generally viewed as trustworthy by United Nations agencies and independent experts.
The United Nations said in May that more than 1,000 Palestinians, including at least 240 children, had been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the start of the war.
It was stated that 49 people have been killed since the beginning of this year.
The baby’s body is expected to be buried late Saturday.
The army said that the initial investigation determined that the injured were civilians who were not involved in the incidents and that the situation was being reviewed.
The Israeli army said soldiers opened fire on a vehicle perceived to be speeding towards them in the Hebron area.
The statement stated that the soldiers responded with a single shot and injured three Palestinians who were evacuated for medical treatment.
In March, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a vehicle carrying a family in the northern West Bank, killing four people, including two children, the Palestinian Authority health ministry said.
Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians are rarely punished and charged in less than one percent of cases, based on 2,427 complaints of alleged misconduct between 2016 and 2024, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel captured from Jordan in 1967 and are sought by Palestinians for a future state.
