We all believed there was ever a red line regarding the safety of children in conflict zones, but it has been completely erased in the form of direct war on Palestinian children. Over the past week, the global community was once again forced to witness the devastating reality of the occupation—not just in the besieged Gaza Strip, but expanding brutally into the West Bank.
This week, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released harrowing video footage from the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron. The video captured the moment Israeli soldiers opened fire on a Palestinian family’s vehicle. The victims were not combatants. Among the wounded parents was seven-month-old Sam Abu Haikal, who was shot in the head while sitting in his mother’s arms in the backseat. He was pronounced dead shortly afterward, without having even taken his first steps.
War on Palestinian Children
1. The Discrepancy in the Narrative
Immediately following the shooting on Friday, June 5, 2026, the Israeli military released a statement claiming that the soldiers had perceived the vehicle to be “accelerating toward them”.
However, the video footage obtained and analyzed by B’Tselem directly contradicts this official account. The footage clearly shows that the car driven by Sam’s father, Fahed Abu Haikal, was actually slowing down in preparation to stop as it approached the military position. Furthermore, B’Tselem noted that after opening fire, the soldiers left the scene without checking the vehicle or providing any medical aid to the critically wounded infant or his injured mother, Daniyah. A separate video showed Fahed desperately trying to stop the bleeding from his son’s head with his bare hands on the street.
2. The Broader Context: Gaza’s Children
This horrific incident in the occupied West Bank is running parallel to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza. The violence against minors is not isolated; it is systemic.
In a statement released on June 10, 2026, UNICEF Regional Director Edouard Beigbeder reported that on the exact same weekend baby Sam was killed in Hebron, eight children were killed and 18 injured across five different locations in the Gaza Strip. In one devastating instance, a group of children were injured by a nearby strike while simply playing a game of football.
The statistics surrounding the aftermath of the October 2025 ceasefire announcement are equally grim. The UN Human Rights Office has verified the killings of 183 children in Gaza since the ceasefire, including five infants under the age of one.
Verdict
The systemic targeting of children, the attempt to mask these actions with easily disproven military narratives, and the world’s absolute paralysis in enforcing international law have created a nightmare where no Palestinian child is safe. Whether sitting in a car in Hebron or playing outside a tent in Gaza, the most vulnerable are paying the ultimate price for the international community’s failure to intervene.