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Hebron car shooting
Israeli forces opened fire on a car in the occupied West Bank near Hebron on Friday, killing seven-month-old Sam Fahd Abou Haikal and wounding his parents, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
“Israeli soldier shoots Palestinian baby dead near Hebron Israeli forces opened fire on a car in the occupied West Bank, killing a seven-month-old boy and wounding his parents”
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said the incident occurred in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida area, and the Israeli military said soldiers “perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them” and responded with “single shots toward the vehicle.”
AP reported that Fahd Abu Haikal, a Bethlehem University lecturer, said a bullet struck the car’s windshield before piercing his right hand and striking his son and wife in the back seat.
The Palestinian health ministry said the bullet struck the boy in the face, and AP journalists reported another bullet struck the hood as the family prepared for funeral prayers.
The Israeli military said an initial inquiry found the wounded were “uninvolved civilians” and that the incident was under review.
Family and officials react
Fahd Abu Haikal told the Associated Press, “At the end they tell you it was a mistake,” adding, “Nothing is called a mistake.”
His grandmother, Feryal Abu Heikal, told Wafa that they were “completely stopped” and said, “There was no danger or justification for firing,” after the Israeli soldiers fired at the car.
The Israeli military said in a post on X that the soldiers’ “single shots” left “three Palestinians” injured and evacuated for medical treatment, and it said the incident was under review.
The BBC reported Labour Minister Tahmina Akhter said the government would launch an immediate investigation and that, “We will hold the owners fully accountable,” while the Reuters team at the scene counted at least 28 bodies in a separate garment-factory fire in Narayanganj.
In the Hebron case, the British consulate in Jerusalem said it was “shocked and saddened” and called for an “immediate and transparent investigation and accountability,” according to the reporting.
Broader war context
The incident was described in multiple reports as part of violence in the occupied West Bank that has escalated since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023.
“- Published The funeral has taken place of a seven-month-old Palestinian baby shot dead by an Israeli soldier while in a car with his family in Hebron in the occupied West Bank”
Al Jazeera said Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 1,080 Palestinians in the West Bank since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian Health Ministry data.
PBS also reported that the UN said last month more than 1,000 Palestinians including at least 240 children have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the war began, and it noted that more than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
In Gaza, PBS reported that an Israeli strike on Saturday in Gaza City killed at least seven people, including two women, a girl and her father, according to Shifa Hospital, and it quoted Director Mohamed Abu Selmiya saying a tent near the Rimal school was struck.
PBS further reported that Hamas said negotiators chaired by Khalil al-Hayyah began a new round of talks in Cairo with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey to break a deadlock and move forward in implementing the Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect in October.
