Israeli army kills baby boy in West Bank car shooting

A seven-month-old Palestinian baby, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was buried in Hebron after being killed by Israeli soldiers. His parents were also injured in the incident, which occurred as the family was returning from visiting relatives in Bethlehem. Relatives and the Palestinian Ministry of Health report that soldiers opened fire on the family's car. The baby was buried in a white shroud, draped with a Palestinian flag. This event echoes a similar incident three months prior in Tammun, another West Bank town, where troops reportedly killed parents and two children by firing on their vehicle during a raid. According to the baby's grandmother, Firyal, the family stopped their car upon seeing Israeli soldiers in the Tel Rumeida area, south of Hebron. She stated that a soldier then fired, and a bullet penetrated the vehicle, killing the infant and wounding his parents. The baby's father, Fahd, told Reuters that the soldier fired from about 10 meters away. The bullet grazed his arm before hitting their son in the head and his wife in the face. Fahd, 41, rejected the notion of an accidental shooting, stating, "It is not that the shots were fired by mistake and caused this tragedy... To say it was a mistake, that 'I didn't know they were coming here' or that the bullet passed through the vehicle by accident, no. In this case, there is no such thing as a 'mistake'." The family was traveling from Bethlehem, where Fahd teaches at the university, to visit relatives in Hebron when they encountered the soldiers, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

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Immediately after the presence of the occupation forces, an armed soldier opened fire on us. The bullets hit the car.