There is no such thing as 'by mistake' in this case.
On a road south of Hebron, a seven-month-old child named Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed when Israeli soldiers fired into a moving vehicle, wounding both of his parents as well. The military describes a moment of perceived threat; the family describes a moment of stillness before the shooting began. In the space between those two accounts lies one of the oldest and most unresolved tensions of this conflict — who holds the power to define what constitutes danger, and who bears the cost when that judgment proves fatal.
- A bullet fired near Tel Rumeida passed through a father's arm and struck his infant son in the head, killing a child who had lived only seven months.
- The Israeli military and the child's family offer irreconcilable accounts — soldiers claim the vehicle accelerated toward them; the family says they had already stopped when shots were fired at close range.
- No soldiers have been named, none removed from duty, and no charges announced — the review continues while those responsible remain unidentified and on active service.
- The child was buried in Hebron on Saturday, wrapped in a white shroud and a Palestinian flag, as his wounded father spoke publicly to dispute the military's version of events.
- The incident deepens an already volatile atmosphere in the occupied West Bank, where the gap between official military accounts and civilian testimony has long been a source of unresolved grief and anger.
Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was seven months old when a bullet came through the windshield of his family's car near Hebron on a Friday. It passed through his father's arm before striking the infant in the head. His mother was hit in the face. By Saturday, the child had been buried after prayers at a mosque, wrapped in a white shroud and a Palestinian flag.
The Israeli military offered a brief account: soldiers in the Tel Rumeida area perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them, fired a single shot, and three Palestinians were wounded and evacuated. The incident, the military said, is under review. No soldiers have been named or removed from duty.
The child's father, Fahd, rejected this account entirely. Speaking after his son's burial, he described a family that saw soldiers ahead and stopped the car — not accelerated toward them. A soldier standing roughly ten meters away fired shots that pierced the vehicle. "There is no such thing as 'by mistake' in this case," he said. His wife, Firyal, who was also in the car, corroborated the account: they had stopped, they were close enough to be seen clearly, and they were fired upon without provocation.
The distance between these two versions — a perceived threat versus unprovoked fire at close range — is where the meaning of this death remains contested. For the military, a review is ongoing. For Sam's family, the story ended on that road. No charges have been announced, and the soldiers involved continue their duties, unnamed.
Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was seven months old when a bullet entered the front windshield of his family's car near Hebron on Friday. The shot passed through his father's arm, then struck the infant in the head. His mother was hit in the face. By Saturday, the child had been wrapped in a white shroud and a Palestinian flag, and buried in Hebron after prayers at a nearby mosque.
The Israeli military's account of what happened is spare and clinical. Soldiers perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them in the Tel Rumeida area south of Hebron, the military said. A single shot was fired in response. Three Palestinians were injured and evacuated for medical treatment. The incident is under review. No soldiers have been identified. None have been removed from duty.
The child's father, Fahd, rejected this version entirely. He was there. He watched it unfold. On Saturday, speaking after his son's burial, he described a different sequence: the family saw Israeli soldiers ahead and stopped their car. Soldiers opened fire. One soldier, standing roughly ten meters away, fired shots that pierced the vehicle. The bullet that killed his son was not a response to acceleration. It was not a mistake. It was not an accident. "There is no such thing as 'by mistake' in this case," Fahd said, his voice carrying the weight of a father who had just buried his child.
His mother, Firyal, was in the car. She witnessed the shooting. She saw the soldier holding his weapon. She saw the bullets strike. The family's account is consistent: they stopped when they saw the military presence. They did not accelerate. They were fired upon at close range by a soldier who was near enough to see them clearly.
The gap between these two narratives—the military's account of a perceived threat and the family's account of unprovoked fire—sits at the center of what happened on that road near Hebron. One version suggests soldiers acting on instinct in a tense environment. The other suggests something closer to recklessness, or worse. The truth of it matters enormously to the people who were there. It matters to the child who is now dead.
What happens next is unclear. The military has said the incident is under review. But the soldiers involved remain unnamed and continue their duties. No charges have been announced. No suspension has been imposed. The review is ongoing, which means the story is not finished—but for Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, and for his parents, and for the grandmother who watched it happen, the story ended on a road south of Hebron on a Friday afternoon.
Citações Notáveis
There is no such thing as 'by mistake' in this case.— Fahd, the child's father
The soldier that shot at us was 10 metres away. The bullet penetrated the front windshield, went through my arm and then struck my son in the head and my wife in the face.— Fahd, describing the shooting
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does the military's account matter if the family was there and saw what happened?
Because the military's version shapes what happens next—whether this is treated as a tragic mistake or something else. Right now, no one is being held accountable, and the soldiers remain on duty. The review could change that, or it could disappear.
The father said there's no such thing as a mistake here. What did he mean?
He was saying that at ten meters away, a soldier doesn't fire by accident. You see who you're shooting at. You make a choice. He was rejecting the idea that this was some kind of tragic misunderstanding.
Has anything like this happened before in that area?
The source doesn't say, but Tel Rumeida is in the occupied West Bank, near Hebron. These are places where tensions run high and incidents involving soldiers and civilians are not rare. That context matters for understanding what happened.
What would accountability look like here?
An investigation that's transparent, soldiers identified and questioned, possibly charges if the evidence supports it. Right now there's a review happening in the dark. The family doesn't know who fired the shot. The public doesn't know. That's part of what makes this so difficult.
The mother was hit in the face. The father in the arm. Are they expected to recover?
The source says they were evacuated for medical treatment, but doesn't say how serious their injuries are or what their prognosis is. We know they survived. We know their son didn't.