Family of baby shot dead by Israeli soldier in the West Bank speaks out

Sam Abu Haikal’s parents buried their healthy and cheerful baby seven months after welcoming him into the world. An Israeli soldier, firing into the family’s car, had shot him dead.

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“I held him in the morning; he was laughing and warm. Then evening came and I held him but his body was cold,” Fahd Abu Haikal told NBC News Friday, after burying his son.

“This innocent child, who had done nothing in this world, who posed no danger at all, was killed in cold blood,” said the 41-year-old multimedia professor.

Haikal’s son was killed by an Israeli soldier near the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank earlier this month as he was driving his 80-year-old mother, Ferial Abu Haikal, home from a family visit. His wife, Dania Salameh, 28, was carrying Sam in her arms in the backseat.

He said that he was driving at a slow speed when he spotted the soldier pointing his weapon at the car. “I stopped immediately, and he opened fire on the vehicle without any warning or justification,” he added.

One of the bullets hit Haikal’s hand before it entered his son’s head as he sat in his mother’s arms. Salameh was also injured.

The Israel Defense Forces initially said its troops had “perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them” as they carried out “operational activity” in the area around Hebron. One soldier responded with several shots toward the vehicle, the IDF said, adding that three Palestinians were hurt and evacuated for medical treatment.

Then video emerged appearing to contradict the Israeli military’s initial account. In the footage, obtained by the Israeli rights organization B’Tselem and viewed by NBC News, the car comes to a stop well before reaching soldiers.

In an updated statement on Thursday, the IDF said the incident was under investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division and was “being examined with the utmost seriousness.” It said it views the matter “with great gravity,” and “regrets harm caused to uninvolved individuals.”

Another video published by B’Tselem, also known as the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights, captured the moments after the incident, in which Haikal can be seen in the video trying to stem the bleeding from his son’s head. His bright yellow romper is covered in blood.

Dania Salameh can be seen sitting on the ground, also injured.

Haikal said his wife was taken to the hospital and had to undergo surgery on the right side of her jaw and on her chest. He said the family initially held off on telling her about baby Sam due to her condition. She was in “shock” when she found out.

Haikal’s elderly mother, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, survived the incident unscathed, as did his older son, Hilal Abu Haikal, 11. Other outlets reported that Sam was Dania Salameh’s only child. NBC News was unable to reach the family again to confirm that detail.

B’Tselem said it shows “that the Israeli soldier fired at the car as it was slowing to a stop,” rather than accelerating toward soldiers. “The car was far from the soldiers and posed no danger to them whatsoever,” it said in a statement.

However, the footage is silent, making it difficult to establish when exactly shots were fired.

Shai Parnes, a spokesperson for the organization, said it received the footage showing the incident without audio. Attempts to obtain a video with sound were unsuccessful.

But he said the video “speaks for itself.” The car was “far away,” he added, and had clearly come to a stop when one of the soldiers opened fire.

In video of Sam’s funeral published by The Associated Press, his tiny body can be seen wrapped in a shroud and covered in a Palestinian flag as his loved ones mourn.

Settler attacks and violence by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank have soared in the years following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

Since then, Israeli security forces have killed 241 children in the region, according to the United Nations human rights office, in addition to over 21,000 children killed in Gaza during the same period, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The Israeli government has periodically condemned the surge in violence in the West Bank, while also pursuing policies to expand settlements and tighten restrictions on Palestinians.

Haikal said his family’s own homes have been targeted in settler attacks, including having stones thrown at their home, their crops destroyed, trees cut down and property stolen.

And now, he said, amid heightened Israeli operations in the West Bank, they had lost their baby son.

What happened “was truly an injustice and fundamentally, a violation of children’s rights,” he said.