On the very day he turned seven months old, a Palestinian baby named Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed by Israeli soldiers who opened fire on his family’s vehicle in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, despite the car coming to a full stop as ordered. The fatal shooting has added new outrage to longstanding accusations of systemic impunity for Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians in the region.
The infant was traveling in the vehicle Friday afternoon alongside his parents, 11-year-old brother, and grandmother Ferial Abu Haikal when the encounter unfolded. Speaking to reporters after the shooting, Ferial Abu Haikal recalled that the family immediately halted their car upon spotting Israeli military personnel positioned along the road. Initially, the family assumed the gunfire they heard was a series of warning shots, but the reality quickly turned devastating. One bullet tore through the baby’s face and exited the back of his skull before becoming lodged in his mother’s cheek, she said.
The child’s mother remained unaware of her son’s death until Saturday morning, as family members concealed the news to protect her health, fearing the severe shock of the loss would worsen her injury. Sam’s father, Fahd Abu Haikal, a lecturer at Bethlehem University, shared a chilling account of the encounter with Israeli outlet Haaretz, confirming he fully complied with the soldier’s order to stop. “The soldier signalled me to stop. I brought the car to a complete halt and raised my hands on the steering wheel. Immediately afterwards, they opened fire on the vehicle,” he said.
Fahd Abu Haikal emphasized there was no room for confusion over who was inside the vehicle. The shooting soldier stood just 10 meters from the car, it was broad daylight, and the windows had no tinting, leaving the entire family clearly visible. “You can’t say he didn’t see that it was a family,” he noted. Unlike a formal, marked checkpoint, the soldiers were simply positioned on the open street, he added, and he followed their instructions to stop without hesitation moments before the shooting began.
Speaking at Sam’s funeral on Saturday, the grieving father described how the Israeli unit withdrew immediately after the shooting and left the scene without any explanation or attempt to assist. “The car was completely stationary when he shot at us, it wasn’t moving at all. A 7 months old infant killed in cold blood. He didn’t deserve this,” he said. He has demanded full accountability for the killing, stating he will not abandon his fight for justice. “I demand and expect, if there is any conscience, any law, any morality, that the soldier who fired the shots will be held accountable for his actions. This case must not be closed without an investigation and without accountability. At the very least, I do not intend to give up,” he added.
In response to inquiries about the incident, an Israeli military spokesperson only stated that “the incident is under review.” This vague update comes amid a stark backdrop of rising violence in the West Bank: the United Nations reported last month that Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the start of the Gaza conflict in October 2023, at least 240 of whom are children.
Widespread impunity for these killings is well documented by Israeli human rights groups. Yesh Din, an Israeli organization tracking military misconduct, found that between 2016 and 2024, fewer than 1 percent of 2,427 complaints of Palestinian abuse against Israeli soldiers resulted in indictments. Few service members ever face punishment for violent acts against Palestinian civilians, a pattern that has fueled ongoing anger across the occupied territories.