Sam Abu Haikal is the latest casualty of Israel’s war on Palestinian life
A SHORT, routine journey from Bethlehem to Hebron in the southern West Bank turned into a nightmare for the Abu Haikal family on Saturday morning, when the Israeli army executed their seven-month-old infant in cold blood.
Fahd Abu Haikal, a university professor, was driving his mother back to the family home in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood of Hebron. Fahd’s wife was sitting in the back with their infant son, Sam Abu Haikal, in her lap, and their 11-year-old son, Kinan, next to her. Fahd’s mother sat beside him in the front seat.
Shortly before they reached their family home in Hebron, they encountered Israeli troops in Wadi al-Hariya area near Tel Rumeida. Fahd immediately stopped the car, but that did not stop the Israelis from opening fire at them.
“The soldier signalled me to stop. I stopped the car completely and raised my hands on the steering wheel. Immediately afterwards, fire opened at the car,” Fahd told Haaretz.
The terrorist Israeli army claimed that a soldier felt threatened by the car that prompted the shooting. However, Fahd father rejected the claim. “The soldier was about ten metres away from me. He saw me, he saw my wife and the children. The car windows were not dark; it was daylight and everything was clear. You can’t say he didn’t see that it was a family.”
Within moments, the car carrying a family returning home became a scene of unforgettable tragedy. The father and mother were wounded, and their infant Sam was struggling with a critically severe injury. The family rushed him to Alia Governmental Hospital in Hebron, but doctors were unable to save his life.
Alaa Abu Haikal, the infant’s uncle, revealed that the bullet that killed the infant exited the baby’s head and struck his mother, injuring her.
“There was no danger whatsoever to the soldiers, yet they fired directly at the vehicle,” Alaa told Ultra Palestine. “Fahd was hit by a bullet in his hand. The second bullet was the most lethal: it entered through baby Sam’s jaw, penetrated his skull, exited his head and struck his mother, who was holding him.”
The uncle added that the family was still unable to comprehend the tragic incident: “Sam was only seven months old. He was sitting in his mother’s lap inside a family car, and there was no clash or confrontation in the area. They went out on a normal trip, and it ended with the loss of a child.”
While the Israelis have slaughtered more than 21,000 children in Gaza during their ongoing genocide in the besieged enclave, they have also accelerated the killing of Palestinian children in the West Bank.
A report in April revealed that the Israelis had killed 27 children in the first four months of this year, describing the killings as “not isolated incidents, but rather part of a broader policy and practice of excessive use of force, rooted in unlawful rules of engagement that seek to cement Israel’s settler colonial apartheid regime as it pursues its genocide against the Palestinian people.”
Israeli barbarism has been continuously escalating since the start of the Gaza genocide. The Jewish state has confiscated vast swathes of Palestinian land in the West Bank as it entrenches its occupation, while expanding illegal settlements, demolishing Palestinian homes, and accelerating the displacement of entire communities.
The Israelis have carried out near-daily military raids across the West Bank’s cities, towns, and refugee camps, leaving hundreds of Palestinians dead and thousands injured or detained. At the same time, armed squatters, often acting under military protection, have intensified attacks on Palestinian civilians, farmland, livestock, and property, creating an atmosphere of constant fear and insecurity. There has been a sharp rise in extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, movement restrictions, and collective punishment measures, particularly targeting Palestinian youth and children.
Sam Abu Haikal is the latest casualty of Israel’s war on Palestinian life. — Palestine Will Be Free
