Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian child after shooting at a car in the West Bank, the Ministry of Health said

Israeli soldiers killed a seven-month-old Palestinian boy after shooting at his parents’ car in the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed on Friday evening, and his parents were injured while driving in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood south of Hebron City, according to the ministry.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the child was seriously injured after being hit by the same bullet that wounded his mother. He later died from his injuries. His father, Fahd Abu Haikal, a teacher at Bethlehem University, was shot in the hand. They were leaving Bethlehem to visit family in Hebron when the soldiers opened fire, the agency reported.

Associated Press photos show the child’s seat was behind the driver’s seat of the car. The photos also show damage, including at least one bullet hole, to the car’s windshield.

The Israeli military has increased military operations in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, a Hamas attack killed about 1,200 people and captured 251 people, sparking the war in Gaza. Israel’s military campaign of retaliation has so far killed more than 72,900 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, is considered credible by the United Nations and independent experts.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces told CBS News that the soldiers “saw a vehicle running towards them” in the Hebron area. The soldier responded with one shot, a police spokesman said. The statement said that three Palestinians were injured and were taken out for treatment, but did not confirm the age and gender of the others.

An initial investigation “found that those injured were civilians,” an IDF spokesman said, adding that the incident was still under review and that the IDF “expresses its deepest regret for any harm done to civilians.”

At Al-Ahly Hospital in Hebron, the baby’s father told Associated Press reporters that the bullet hit the car window before piercing his hand, then his son and wife.

“It entered the child’s face on the right side and came out on the left side. It went directly to the mother’s face and came out on the other side, the bullets were placed near her heart,” said Abu Haikal.

The mother is in critical condition because there are explosives near her heart, he said. They still haven’t told her that her son, who turned seven months old on Friday, was killed.

The baby’s grandmother, Feryal Abu Heikal, was in the car when the shooting happened. She said they were driving near the checkpoint and stopped when they saw Israeli military vehicles and soldiers in the distance. When the forces fired at them, he first thought they were warning shots before they were hit, he said.

“The scene of the incident was horrible to see a seven-month-old child with his face crushed,” he said. “What kind of army in the world does this? … What happened to my grandson cannot be easily forgotten.”

The child’s funeral is expected later on Saturday.

The British embassy in Jerusalem said it was “shocked and saddened” by the incident, saying on social media that it wanted “a quick and transparent investigation and accountability” and that “citizens must be protected.”

The United Nations said last month that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east of Jerusalem since the war began. At least 240 of them are children, according to the UN, forty-nine people have been killed since the beginning of 2026, it said.

In March, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a car carrying a family in the northern West Bank, killing four people, including two children, the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry said at the time.

Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians are rarely punished and charged in less than 1% of cases based on 2,427 complaints between 2016 and 2024, according to the Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

More than 700,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and east of Jerusalem, areas that Israel captured in 1967 from Jordan and claimed by the Palestinians for a future state.