Israeli NGO publishes footage challenging army account of Palestinian baby’s killing

TLE Desk: An Israeli human rights group has published video footage that it says contradicts the Israeli military’s account of an incident in which a soldier allegedly shot and killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby in the occupied West Bank, reports AFP.

The infant, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, was killed and his parents were lightly injured when Israeli forces opened fire on the family’s vehicle in Hebron on Friday.

Following the incident, the Israeli military said soldiers had opened fire after perceiving a vehicle accelerating toward them.

However, footage released by Israeli rights organization B’Tselem on Tuesday appeared to show the vehicle slowing down and coming to a stop as it approached two Israeli soldiers.

While the video does not capture the actual shooting, it shows the family outside the vehicle afterward, with the wounded infant bleeding in his father’s arms.

The military had earlier announced an investigation into the incident and said a preliminary review found that the couple and their child were “uninvolved civilians.”

B’Tselem also accused the soldiers involved of failing to assist the victims after the shooting.

“After the shooting, the soldier who opened fire and another soldier who was with him left the scene without checking the vehicle and without providing aid to the critically injured infant and his mother,” the organization said in a statement posted on X.

The Israeli army told AFP it was examining the footage released by the NGO.

Speaking at his son’s funeral on Saturday, the infant’s father, Fahd Abu Haikal, rejected suggestions that the shooting was accidental.

“When more than one bullet is fired, when there’s no warning shot and no warning at all, it can’t be a mistake,” he said.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence in the territory has surged since the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023.

According to an AFP tally based on figures from the Palestinian health ministry, at least 1,080 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, 2023. The dead include militants as well as numerous civilians.

Israeli official figures show that at least 44 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during military operations in the same period.