Video shows family’s car slowing before Israeli troops shot dead Palestinian baby
Footage appears to contradict Israeli military’s account of killing of seven-month-old Sam Abu Haikal in West Bank
Footage has emerged that appears to contradict the Israeli military’s account of the shooting that killed seven-month-old Sam Abu Haikal in his mother’s arms, showing the family’s car slowing near a military post before soldiers opened fire.
On Friday, the killing of the infant by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank caused outrage, after soldiers opened fire on the family’s vehicle despite it having complied with an order to stop. Sam was killed and his mother, Daniyah Abu Haikal, and father, Fahed Abu Haikal, were both injured.
The Israel Defense Forces said its troops had “perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them” and that one of the soldiers had “responded with single shots toward the vehicle”.
However, footage obtained by the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights, B’Tselem, contradicts IDF claims that the car in which the Abu Haikal family was travelling was accelerating towards them when they shot.
“The footage clearly shows that the Israeli soldier fired at the car as it was slowing to a stop,” B’Tselem said in a statement. “The car was far from the soldiers and posed no danger to them whatsoever.”
In another video obtained by B’Tselem, seven-month-old Sam’s father is seen just after his son was shot. Fahd Abu Haikal is holding the baby in his arms, trying to stop the bleeding from his head with his hands, while Daniyah, who was also injured by the gunfire while holding her son, is seen sitting on the ground next to the car.
Fahd said a bullet had passed through his hand and struck his son, who was being held by his mother in the back seat. The family, which also included the couple’s 11-year-old son and Fahd’s mother, had been driving through Hebron when they were stopped by the soldiers, he said.
Although the video has no sound, and it is unclear when exactly the soldier opened fire at the vehicle, the clip appears to corroborate Fahd’s account.He told Hareetz: “The soldier signalled me to stop. I brought the car to a complete halt and raised my hands on the steering wheel. Immediately afterwards, they opened fire on the vehicle.
“I stopped as I was instructed to, and then they simply shot at the car,” he added. “There was no clear checkpoint, just soldiers standing in the street. I stopped when I was asked to, and then the shooting started.
“The car was completely stationary when he shot at us, it wasn’t moving at all. A seven-month-old infant killed in cold blood. He didn’t deserve this.”
The footage released by B’Tselem also showed Israeli soldiers failing to assist the family, instead standing by as civilians rushed to help the wounded child and his parents.
The UN said in March that more than 1,000 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the most recent war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza began in October 2023, at least 240 of them children, and 49 people have been killed this year.
Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians are rarely penalised and were indicted in less than 1% of cases based on 2,427 complaints alleging wrongdoing between 2016 and 2024, according to the Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
“In the past two and a half years, Israel has killed tens of thousands of children in Gaza and the West Bank,” said B’Tselem’s executive director, Yuli Novak. ‘‘The immunity it gets from the international community has led to a reality where, under Israeli rule, Palestinian lives are entirely disposable – even a seven‑month‑old baby.”
The IDF expressed “deep sorrow for any harm caused to uninvolved individuals”. On Sunday, the Israeli military police opened an investigation into the soldier who fired at the family’s vehicle.