Infant killed in Israeli military shooting near Hebron

A seven-month-old Palestinian baby, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, died Friday evening after Israeli forces opened fire on a vehicle in the Tel Rumeida area near Hebron. His parents sustained gunshot wounds during the encounter, leaving the community to navigate the aftermath of an incident the military now labels an investigation.

The family had stopped their car upon encountering military vehicles when the gunfire erupted. According to the baby's grandmother, a single bullet struck the infant in the face before lodging in his mother’s cheek and grazing the father’s hand. The parents received medical treatment for their injuries following the confrontation.

Israeli military officials stated that soldiers fired on the vehicle under the assumption it was approaching them at a high speed. They subsequently acknowledged that the three individuals inside were uninvolved civilians. Tel Rumeida remains a site of persistent friction, where Israeli settlers live under military protection amidst a dense Palestinian population. Current data highlights the scale of this divide, with over 700,000 settlers now residing in East Jerusalem and the West Bank alongside more than 3 million Palestinians.