‘Lives turned in a second’: Family of baby Sam, shot dead by Israel, grieve

Fahd Abu Haikal, 41, is still in shock at the sudden death of his seven-month-old son, who was shot dead by an Israeli soldier as he travelled through the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Friday.

Sam was in the backseat of a car with his mother Dania Salameh, 28, and his brother Kinan, 11, as the father drove his mother, Ferial, 61, back to her home in Hebron, following a brief stay with the family in Bethlehem.

As they approached Tel Rumeida, a Hebron neighbourhood containing a large Israeli settlement where Ferial lives, a group of soldiers appeared out of the darkness.

Fahd stopped the car and raised his hands, but despite all attempts to make it clear they were not a threat, a soldier took aim and fired at the vehicle. A bullet pierced the windshield, went through Fahd’s hand, and hit Sam, who sat behind him, in the face. It killed him instantly.

The same bullet that killed Sam then travelled through his mother’s jaw, leaving a fragment lodged in Dania’s body, close to her heart. Doctors decided not to remove the shrapnel, fearing an operation so close to a major artery would endanger her life.

[Sari Jaradat/Al Jazeera]

Fahd called an ambulance, but with blood pouring from his wife’s and son’s bodies, he could wait no longer, so he flagged down a passing car and headed to the hospital. Due to Dania’s critical condition, he waited a day before telling her that their son was dead.

“After seeing the injuries, the soldiers withdrew from the scene without offering any assistance or doing anything about it,” Fahd told Al Jazeera. “We were shot with intent to kill; the soldier who shot us was on the front left side [of the vehicle].”

Fahd intends to file a case against the soldier who fired the fatal shot, but he has little hope of accountability, particularly after the steps taken by the army at the scene of the boy’s death.

“After the incident, the soldiers confiscated the security camera footage from the area, but no one has contacted us about investigating the crime,” Fahd said. “My eldest son, Kinan, is in a very difficult psychological state after losing his only brother, whom he had waited for, for so long. Our lives were turned upside down in an instant.”

Fahd Abu Haikal inspects the car where his seven-month-old child, Sam, was shot dead [Sari Jaradat/Al Jazeera]

Ferial remembers the harrowing moment she saw her grandson killed.

“When I heard the gunshots, I thought the soldiers were just warning us, but then I realised a bullet pierced the car and hit the baby,” she told Al Jazeera.

“I screamed at the top of my lungs in the street, and people gathered around. I felt like I’d lost my mind when I saw the blood covering Sam’s face and clothes.”

Before leaving her son’s home, Ferial filmed Sam on her phone as he sat in his stroller, exactly seven months to the day he was born.

“He was a quiet, cheerful baby who didn’t cry much, was obedient, and laughed constantly,” she said.

“I used to take pictures and videos of him with my phone camera so I could watch them when I got home because I always missed him so much.”

Troubled neighbourhood

Hebron is one of the most oppressive environments in the West Bank for Palestinians, due in part to the presence of Israeli settlers in and around the city.

Israeli forces have tightened their grip over Hebron since October 7, 2023, particularly the area around the Ibrahimi Mosque and Kiryat Arba settlement, where Tel Rumeida is situated. A thousand Palestinian families there are now effectively confined to an open-air prison.

An Israeli flag is set atop the Palestinian Ayoub Abdel-Basit al-Tamimi family home, which was allegedly taken over by Israeli settlers overnight, in Hebron city near the Israeli settlement area of Tel Rumeida in the occupied West Bank on March 24, 2025 [AFP]

“We fear they are digging under our homes, just like they are doing in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem, so that the house will collapse and they can seize everything,” Ferial said of her experiences living in Tel Rumeida.

Violence against Palestinians, including children, in Hebron is also increasing. In December, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a vehicle in the Bab al-Zawiya area of central Hebron, killing a sanitation worker and a boy. His body is still being held by Israeli authorities.

A month later, Israeli forces shot dead a 58-year-old Palestinian man as he drove in the area with his daughter and four grandchildren, wounding one of the children.

Issa Amro, coordinator of the Youth Against Settlements group and a resident of Tel Rumeida, said Israeli forces have established a ring of checkpoints around the neighbourhood.

Palestinians are not only prevented from entering Tel Rumeida to visit family there, but a wave of Israeli violence has also made it an unsafe place for the local population to remain.

“We live in constant fear and feel like we are being targeted,” Amro said. “Anyone living in this area expects to be shot at point-blank range without any justification. We live in hell and terror, constantly fearing for ourselves and our children.”