Israeli troops killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby boy after firing at his parents’ vehicle in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed Friday evening, and his parents were wounded while driving in the Tel Rumeida area south of Hebron City, according to the ministry. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the infant was critically wounded after being struck in the jaw by the same bullet that injured his mother. He later died of his injuries. His father, Fahd Abdul Aziz Abu Haikal, a lecturer at Bethlehem University, was shot in the hand. They were traveling from Bethlehem to visit family in Hebron when soldiers opened fire, the agency reported. A man inspects the shattered family vehicle of seven month old Palestinian baby boy Sam Fahd Abu Heikal, who was killed on Friday when Israeli soldiers fired at the vehicle carrying him and his parents, in Tel Rumeida, in the West Bank city of Hebron Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) Israel’s military has scaled up military operations in the West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack. The United Nations said last month that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the war began, at least 240 of them children. Forty-nine people have been killed since the start of this year, it said. The army said an initial inquiry found that the injured were uninvolved civilians and said the situation is under review. Israel's military said Friday that soldiers shot at a vehicle that was perceived to be accelerating toward them in the Hebron area. It said soldiers responded with single shots, wounding three Palestinians who were evacuated for medical treatment.
