Footage has emerged that appears to contradict the Israeli military's account of the shooting that killed seven-month-old Sam Abu Haikala in his mother's arms, showing the family's car slowing down near a military checkpoint before soldiers opened fire, the British newspaper The Guardian reports.
On Friday, the killing of a child by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank sparked outrage after soldiers opened fire on a family car despite obeying orders to stop. Sam was killed, and his mother, Daniya Abu Haikal, and father, Fahed Abu Haikal, were wounded.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops "perceived a vehicle accelerating towards them" and that one of the soldiers "responded with single shots towards the vehicle."
However, footage obtained by the Israeli Human Rights Information Center, B'Tselem, contradicts the IDF's claims that the car in which the Abu Haikal family was traveling was accelerating toward them when they opened fire.
"The footage clearly shows that an Israeli soldier fired at the car as it slowed to a stop. The car was far away from the soldiers and posed no danger to them," B'Tselem said.
In another video obtained by B'Tselem, the father of seven-month-old Sam is seen immediately after his son was shot. Fahed Abu Haikal holds the baby in his arms, trying to stop the bleeding from his head with his hands, while Daniya, who was also wounded by gunfire while holding her son, is shown sitting on the ground next to a car, according to the Guardian.
Fahd said the bullet passed through his arm and hit his son, who was in his mother's arms in the back seat. The family, which included the couple's 11-year-old son and Fahd's mother, were driving through Hebron when they were stopped by soldiers, he said.
Although the video has no sound and it is not clear exactly when the soldier opened fire on the vehicle, the footage appears to corroborate Fahd's account, according to the Guardian.
He told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: "A soldier signaled me to stop. I stopped the car completely and put my hands on the steering wheel. Immediately afterwards, they opened fire on the vehicle. I stopped as ordered, and then they simply shot at the car. There was no clear checkpoint, just soldiers standing on the street. I stopped when they asked me, and then the shooting started. The car was completely still when they shot at us, it wasn't moving at all. A seven-month-old child killed in cold blood. He didn't deserve this."
The footage released by B'Tselem also showed that Israeli soldiers did not help the family, but stood aside as civilians rushed to help the wounded child and his parents.
The United Nations (UN) said in March that more than 1.000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the start of the last war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza in October 2023, including at least 240 children, and 49 people have been killed this year.
Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians are rarely punished, and charges have been filed in less than one percent of cases based on 2.427 complaints alleging abuses between 2016 and 2024, according to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din.
"Over the past two and a half years, Israel has killed tens of thousands of children in Gaza and the West Bank. The immunity it enjoys from the international community has led to a reality in which, under Israeli rule, Palestinian lives are completely expendable – even those of a seven-month-old child," said B'Tselem's executive director, Yuli Novak, according to the Guardian.
The IDF expressed "deep regret for any harm caused to uninvolved individuals."
On Sunday, Israeli military police opened an investigation into the soldier who shot at the family's vehicle.
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