Israel has killed an infant and wounded his parents in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which said the baby was struck by Israeli gunfire and both parents were also wounded.
Sam Fahd Abou Haikal, aged seven months, died, and his parents were injured "after the occupation forces opened fire on them on Friday evening" in the south of the city of Hebron, the ministry said.
Dr Tareq Barbarawi, the director of a Hebron hospital, had earlier told the AFP news agency that the child had been taken into care with "serious" wounds.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, the Israeli army fired towards the family's car.
In a rare admission, the Israeli military acknowledged responsibility for the killing of baby and stated that the attack on the family is under investigation, according to Israeli media reports.
Since Israel began its genocide in Gaza in October 2023, Palestinians are suffering the near-daily violence by Israeli military and armed Zionist settlers in West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Israeli soldiers or illegal settlers have killed at least 1,080 Palestinians since then, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data.
Settler expansion
While the world watches Gaza, the occupied West Bank is being transformed through shootings, displacement, raids and illegal settlement expansion.
At least 12,000 Palestinians have been uprooted or expelled since 2020, according to the UN, as Israeli military attacks, settler violence, arrests and home demolitions intensify across the occupied territory.
Since October 2023, the escalation has accelerated dramatically, hollowing out entire communities and deepening fears of a wider annexation drive.
Today, nearly 750,000 illegal Israeli settlers live across 141 settlements and 224 outposts built on occupied Palestinian land, including around 250,000 in occupied East Jerusalem.
