Israeli Soldiers Seal Checkpoint Gate, Refuse Passage, Killing Baby Ahmad Zaid

Three-month-old Ahmad Zaid died at 3:20 P.M. after an Israeli military checkpoint gate between Deir Ammar and Ramallah was sealed and soldiers refused to let his family cross to reach an ambulance.

His father, Maarouf Zaid, carried Ahmad toward the soldiers as his oxygen mask slipped off, and Ahmad’s aunt, Fatima al-Abd Khalil, said the soldiers shouted at the family to step back and warned they would shoot.

Al Jazeera

Khalil recalled Maarouf’s words: “My son is going to die. Shoot me, just let my son pass.”

The Eastern Herald reported that the gate was part of a network of 925 Israeli movement obstacles documented by the United Nations across the occupied West Bank affecting an estimated 3.4 million Palestinians, and that the World Health Organization recorded 233 incidents affecting healthcare facilities, ambulances, and medical personnel across the West Bank in 2025 alone.

The same report said the transfer would have taken seconds, with medical staff planning to carry Ahmad across the gate on foot while an ambulance waited on the other side, but Israeli soldiers refused the crossing.

In Gaza, Israel continued deadly military operations despite a ceasefire, with RFI reporting that on Friday, December 19, a tank shell struck the building’s second floor during a wedding held inside a school in the al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

RFI said civil defense teams were prevented from intervening for at least two hours and that Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of al-Chifa hospital, counted among the victims a four-month-old baby, a fourteen-year-old girl, and two women.

Al Jazeera

Outside the Nafiz al-Nader Hospital, a witness said, “This is not a truce, it's a bloodbath; we want it to stop,” referring to the ceasefire in effect since October in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

France 24 reported that Palestinian Civil Defense said Israeli strikes in the north of the Gaza Strip killed 10 people, including a child, and that the hospital confirmed to AFP it had received the bodies.

France 24 added that 757 Palestinians had been killed since the ceasefire, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, and that the Israeli army said it was checking the reports of the latest deaths.

In the occupied West Bank, B'Tselem documented that the Israeli occupation killed 54 Palestinian children and youths by gunfire and airstrikes during 2025, and said most were killed under circumstances in which they posed no direct threat.

“Gaza: Israeli strikes have killed 10 people, including a child, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense”

France 24

The Palestinian Information Center report said B'Tselem also documented that occupation authorities continued to hold the bodies of a number of them to this day, and that as of June 29, 2026, the occupation authorities still held 18 bodies out of the 54 killed in 2025.

It stated that B'Tselem considered this policy to violate international law and deprive families of their right to bid farewell to their children, bury them, and hold mourning rituals, thus exacerbating their suffering.

The same report said B'Tselem found that 21 children and youths were killed despite not taking part in any clashes, and that 13 others were killed on the alleged charge of throwing stones toward the occupation forces or at roads, with no injuries recorded among the Israeli forces.

Separately, the Eastern Herald described how Israeli military authorities contacted the Zaid family before the burial and issued instructions prohibiting political slogans, martyr posters, and public displays during the funeral, with warnings of consequences for non-compliance.