The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was in his mother’s arms when he was hit in the incident in Hebron
Israeli troops killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby in the occupied West Bank and injured one of the child’s parents on Friday after opening fire on the family’s car, despite it having complied with an order to stop.
Soldiers opened fire on a car carrying the infant and his parents in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. The seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was critically injured, evacuated in critical condition to a local hospital, where he later died. His parents were also injured.
The Israeli military said troops had fired at a vehicle they believed was moving towards them, but an initial inquiry found those injured were uninvolved civilians.
In an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the father, Fahd Abu Haikal, a lecturer at Bethlehem University, said that “a bullet passed through his hand and struck his son, Sam, who was being held by his mother in the back seat”. Abu Haikal said the family, which also included the couple’s 11-year-old son and Abu Haikal’s mother, had been driving through Hebron on Friday evening when soldiers signalled for the vehicle to stop, he said.
