One bullet struck my grandson, traversed his face and crossed his head
In the Tel Rumeida area of the occupied West Bank, a seven-month-old boy named Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed by Israeli gunfire, his parents wounded beside him. The Israeli military described a perceived vehicular threat; the family described stopping their car at the sight of soldiers, then hearing shots they first mistook for warnings. This single incident folds into a pattern of more than a thousand Palestinian deaths in the West Bank since October 2023, a toll that asks enduring questions about the distance between military perception and civilian reality in contested land.
- A single bullet passed through an infant's face, lodged in his mother's cheek, and grazed his father's finger — one round, three casualties, one of them seven months old.
- The IDF and the family offer irreconcilable accounts: soldiers responding to a vehicle accelerating toward them versus a family that had already stopped when the shots came.
- The grandmother reconstructed the bullet's path with the precision of grief, a detail that captures how families in conflict zones are forced to become forensic witnesses to their own losses.
- The IDF has placed the incident under review and expressed sorrow for harm to uninvolved individuals — language that acknowledges uncertainty without resolving it.
- Sam's death is one of more than a thousand Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank since October 2023, a number that risks absorbing individual lives into abstraction unless each name is held separately.
On a Friday south of Hebron, in the Tel Rumeida area, Israeli soldiers fired on a vehicle carrying a Palestinian family. The youngest passenger was Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, seven months old. He did not survive. His mother and father were both wounded in the same incident.
The Israeli Defense Forces said their troops perceived the vehicle accelerating toward them and responded with single shots, adding that the incident was under review and expressing sorrow for harm caused to uninvolved individuals. The family's account, shared by Sam's grandmother, describes a different sequence: they saw military vehicles and soldiers ahead, stopped the car, and then heard shots — shots they initially believed were warnings.
One bullet entered the infant's face, traveled through his head, and came to rest in his mother's cheek. The same round grazed his father's finger. The grandmother described this trajectory with the careful precision of someone who needed to understand exactly what had been done to her grandson.
Sam's killing arrives within a much larger and still-accumulating toll. Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 — which killed approximately 1,200 people and resulted in 251 abductions — the West Bank has grown increasingly lethal for Palestinians, with more than a thousand reported deaths in the period since. In Gaza, the health ministry has recorded more than 70,600 deaths from the Israeli military response.
The gap between how soldiers describe their actions and how families experience them is not new to occupied territory. A vehicle perceived as a threat. A family that says it had already stopped. A review that may clarify what happened, but cannot undo it. For Sam's family, whatever the inquiry concludes, it arrives after the fact that matters most.
On a Friday in the Tel Rumeida area south of Hebron, a seven-month-old boy named Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed by Israeli gunfire. His parents were shot as well. The Israeli Defense Forces said their troops had perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them and responded with single shots. Three Palestinians were injured and taken for medical treatment, the military said, adding that the incident was under review and expressing "deep sorrow for any harm caused to uninvolved individuals."
The family's account, relayed through the baby's grandmother to Reuters, tells a different sequence. They were driving in the area when they saw Israeli military vehicles and soldiers ahead. They stopped their car. Then shots came toward them—shots the family initially thought were warnings.
One bullet entered the infant's face, passed through his head, and lodged in his mother's cheek. The same round grazed the father's finger. The mother was hospitalized. The grandmother described the trajectory of that single shot with the precision of someone who has had to understand exactly what happened to her grandson.
This killing is one incident in a much larger toll. Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023—an assault that killed roughly 1,200 people and resulted in 251 abductions into Gaza—the West Bank has become increasingly dangerous for Palestinians. More than 1,000 have been reported killed there in the months since. In Gaza itself, the Israeli military response has resulted in more than 70,600 deaths according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The circumstances of Sam Fahd Abu Haikal's death sit at the center of a recurring tension in occupied territory: the gap between how military forces describe their actions and how civilians experience them. A vehicle perceived as a threat. A family that stopped when they saw soldiers. A single bullet that killed a child and wounded both his parents. The IDF's statement that the incident is under review suggests the military itself recognizes the need to examine what occurred. But for the family, the examination comes too late.
Citas Notables
One bullet struck my grandson, traversed his face and crossed his head, striking his mother's cheek where it lodged— The baby's grandmother
The incident is under review. Deep sorrow for any harm caused to uninvolved individuals— Israeli Defense Forces statement
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does the military's account matter if the family's version is so different?
Because it shapes what happens next—whether this is treated as a tragic mistake or a failure of judgment. The IDF saying they perceived a threat is not the same as saying a threat existed. The grandmother saying they stopped their car is not the same as accelerating toward soldiers.
Do we know which account is accurate?
We have the family's account and the military's account. We have the fact of a dead seven-month-old. We have a bullet that passed through a child's head. The review will determine more, but the physical evidence is already there.
What does "under review" typically mean in these situations?
It means the military will examine what happened internally. It doesn't necessarily mean accountability or charges. It means they're looking at their own actions.
Why mention the broader death toll in a story about one child?
Because one child's death doesn't exist in isolation. Over 1,000 Palestinians killed in the West Bank since October 2023. More than 70,000 in Gaza. This is one moment in a much larger pattern of loss.
Does the family have recourse?
The source doesn't say. That's what we don't know yet.