HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — Israeli troops killed a seven-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 ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, is generally seen as reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts.
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. Forty-nine people have been killed since the start of this year, it said.
