HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — Israeli troops killed a 7-month-old Palestinian baby boy after firing at his parents’ vehicle in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed Friday evening, and his parents were wounded while driving in the Tel Rumeida area south of Hebron City, according to the ministry.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the baby was critically wounded after being struck in the face by the same bullet that injured his mother. He later died of his injuries. His father, Fahd Abu Haikal, a lecturer at Bethlehem University, was shot in the hand. They were traveling from Bethlehem to visit family in Hebron when soldiers opened fire, the agency reported.
Israel’s military has scaled up military operations in the West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 people and took 251 people hostage, which triggered the war in Gaza. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has so far killed more than 72,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The United Nations said last month that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the war began, at least 240 of them children.
The Israeli military said Friday soldiers shot at a vehicle that was perceived to be accelerating toward them in the Hebron area. It said the soldiers responded with single shots, wounding three Palestinians who were evacuated for medical treatment. An initial inquiry found that the wounded were uninvolved civilians and the situation is under review.
At Al-Ahly Hospital in Hebron, the baby’s father told Associated Press reporters that a bullet struck the car’s windshield before piercing his right hand, then his son and wife who were in the back seat. Another bullet struck the vehicle’s hood, according to AP reporters who saw the car.
His wife is in critical condition because there’s shrapnel close to her heart, he said. The family told her that her son, who turned seven months old on Friday, was killed, just before heading to funeral prayers.
The baby’s grandmother, Feryal Abu Heikal, was also in the car during the shooting and said they were driving near a checkpoint and stopped when they saw Israeli military vehicles and soldiers in the distance. As the forces fired at them, she initially thought it was warning shots before they were struck, she said.
“The scene was horrific to see a 7-month-old baby with a smashed face,” she said. “What kind of army in the world does this? ... What happened to my grandson can’t be easily forgotten."
The funeral service was held at noon at a nearby mosque. The tiny body was wrapped in the Palestinian flag as people lined up for prayers before taking him in an ambulance for burial. At the ambulance, Abu Haikal was seen crying and hugging the infant’s half-brother.
The British Consulate in Jerusalem said it was “shocked and saddened” by the Israeli killing of the baby, calling on X for an "immediate and transparent investigation and accountability.”
Also on Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said eight people were wounded in settler attacks on the town of Huwara, near Nablus, including from tear gas inhalation and rubber-coated metal bullets.
In March, Israeli soldiers fired on a car carrying a family in the northern West Bank, killing four people, including two children, the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry said at the time.
Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians are rarely penalized and were indicted in fewer than 1% of cases based on 2,427 complaints alleging wrongdoing 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, territories captured by Israel in 1967 from Jordan and sought by the Palestinians for a future state. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in these areas to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
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Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt, and Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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