Israeli soldier 'assassinates' Palestinian infant in Hebron
A new video posted on social media on Tuesday revealed the moment an Israeli soldier killed a 7-month-old Palestinian infant in his mother's arms in Hebron in the southern West Bank four days ago.
It reveals the moments of the shooting of the Abu Heikal family, which resulted in the martyrdom of Sam Abu Heikal, a 7-month-old child, and the wounding of his parents.
A statement from the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B'Tselem), which published the video, said: "Last Friday, June 5, an Israeli soldier shot at a Palestinian family returning from a family visit while they were driving their car in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron."
Sam, the 7-month-old baby, who was in his mother's arms in the back seat, was shot in the head and was pronounced dead shortly afterwards. Sam's parents, who are still receiving treatment at the hospital, were also shot.
"After the shooting, the soldier who fired and another soldier who was with him left the scene without searching the vehicle or providing any assistance to the seriously injured child and his mother," the center continued.
Child's Mother Certificate
Fahd Abu Heikal, the father of the martyred Sam, recounted the details of the moments before and after the shooting in Hebron, stressing that what happened was a "full-fledged crime" committed in front of his eyes.
Abu Heikal said he was driving his vehicle with his wife and two children as they approached the military post in the Tal Rumeida neighborhood, and he fully complied with the soldiers' instructions, slowing down in preparation for stopping, and there was no reason to suspect or target them.
He added that one of the soldiers suddenly fired live ammunition directly at the rear window from a very close range, "without any warning or order to get off," as he described it.
The father explained that the bullet penetrated the back seat and hit the head of his infant child Sam while he was lying on his mother's lap, splattering his blood on her face and on his younger brother, who miraculously survived, noting that his mother was injured in her face and body, while he was lightly injured.
Abu Heikal stressed that the family's suffering did not stop at the shooting, as the soldiers detained the vehicle and prevented the ambulance from reaching for more than 20 minutes, depriving his child of any chance to save his life while he was bleeding inside the car, describing this behavior as a "deliberate abuse" that increased the gravity of the crime.
The bereaved father pointed out that his wife is currently lying in the hospital in a difficult health condition, and that the family has not yet told her the news of her child's martyrdom for fear of deteriorating her psychological and medical condition, stressing that what happened "will remain an open wound that cannot heal."
Reactions: Summary executions and deprivation of Palestinian lives
B'Tselem Director Yuli Novak said that the incident reflected the "permissibility of Palestinian lives" as a result of the continued impunity of soldiers.
For its part, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as "field executions", considering it a war crime that requires an international investigation and the referral of the file to the International Criminal Court.
While the Israeli army initially claimed suspicion of the vehicle, it later announced the opening of an investigation through the Military Police after the release of the video, which completely refuted its account.
Shocking statisticsregarding child victims in the West Bank
Reports by Defence for Children International (DCI), B'Tselem, and UN agencies UNICEF and OCHA indicate that an average of one Palestinian child has been killed per week in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, while the number of child martyrs exceeded 33 as of mid-April, before the toll rose significantly during May, which saw 19 children killed, and up to the beginning of June He recorded bloody incidents, the most prominent of which was the killing of the infant Sam Abu Heikal in Hebron.
UNICEF confirms that 93% of the children killed during this period were targeted by live bullets in the head or chest and from close ranges, whether by Israeli soldiers or settlers.
The organizations documented that more than 850 children have been injured in varying degrees since the beginning of the year, including dozens of permanent disabilities as a result of live ammunition and explosive shrapnel, in addition to cases of amputations and physical deformities resulting from military incursions and settler violence, especially in Jenin, Tulkarem and the Old City of Hebron.
Prisoners' and human rights institutions have recorded more than 600 cases of detention of children from the West Bank and Jerusalem since January 2026, most of whom are subject to military trials and face systematic ill-treatment and denial of family visits, in clear violation of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.