HEBRON, West Bank — 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, with the bullet striking the boy in the face.
Sam Fahd Abu Haikal's parents were wounded while driving Friday evening in the Tel Rumeida area south of Hebron, the ministry said. They had been traveling to visit family, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
“A bullet pierced the child’s face from the right side and exited from the left side,” and then it struck his mother, said the father, Fahd Abu Haikal. The Bethlehem University lecturer was shot in the hand.
“He was the entire world,” Haikal added. The boy turned seven months on Friday.
The Israeli military said that soldiers shot at a vehicle perceived to be accelerating toward them in the Hebron area. It said three Palestinians were wounded and an initial inquiry found they were uninvolved civilians. The situation was under review.
The father told The Associated Press that a bullet struck the car’s windshield before piercing his right hand and striking his son and wife in the back seat. Another bullet struck the hood, according to AP journalists who saw the car.
Haikal said his wife was in critical condition, with shrapnel close to her heart. The family told her that her son was killed just before heading to funeral prayers.
The baby's body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag. His father carried him. The men placed the small bundle at their feet and bowed in prayer.
The father demanded justice. “At the end they tell you it was a mistake,” he said. “Nothing is called a mistake.”
The baby’s grandmother, Feryal Abu Heikal, was also in the car. She said that 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, 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?”
Israel has stepped up attacks in the West Bank
The British Consulate in Jerusalem said on X that it was “shocked and saddened” by the killing of the baby, calling for an “immediate and transparent investigation and accountability.”
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.
Israel's military has scaled up military operations in the West Bank since the attack by Hamas-led militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza. The United Nations last month said 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.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said that eight people were wounded in settler attacks on the town of Huwara, near Nablus, including from tear gas inhalation and rubber-coated metal bullets.
Israel's military said that riots broke out between Israelis and Palestinians, with rocks and batons, after a reported theft of livestock and soldiers dispersed them. The military said that it was aware of footage showing a soldier using violence against a Palestinian and it was under review.
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.
Strike kills at least 7 in Gaza
An Israeli strike on Saturday in Gaza City killed at least seven people, including two women, a girl and her father, all from the same family, according to Shifa Hospital. Director Mohamed Abu Selmiya said that a tent near the Rimal school was struck.
Israel's military said that it attacked “terrorists” in the area.
Meanwhile, Hamas said that negotiators chaired by Khalil al-Hayyah began a new round of talks in Cairo with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, in an effort to break a deadlock and move forward in implementing the Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect in October. The previous round of talks was a month ago.
Spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in video comments that the talks were aimed at fully implementing the ceasefire's first phase and ending Israel’s near-daily attacks in the territory. The fragile ceasefire began in October.
He said that they also will discuss “approaches acceptable to all parties" to implement the second phase, including the entry of an international stabilization force and addressing weapons of Palestinian militant groups. Disarming Hamas has been a key challenge.
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Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.
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