"Pas une erreur" : aux funérailles de son bébé, un Palestinien refuse d'absoudre Israël
A Palestinian infant, fatally wounded by Israeli fire, was buried on Saturday in the southern occupied West Bank, in the presence of his father who refuses to believe it was an "error" by the Israeli army.
Seven-month-old Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was in a car with his parents Friday night near Hebron when all three were hit by Israeli army bullets.
The company acknowledged, after a preliminary investigation, that one of its soldiers had opened fire "on non-suspect civilians" after their vehicle accelerated towards troops.
In the Hebron cemetery, a few dozen people accompanied the father, Fahd Abu Haikal, who held the small body of his son wrapped in a Palestinian flag, an AFP team observed.
His wife, who suffered facial injuries, is still hospitalized but is in stable condition, he told AFP.
"We were going from Bethlehem to Hebron. We approached the (Israeli military, editor's note) checkpoint and all of a sudden I heard a noise, I stopped the car and raised my hands," he recounted.
"I heard a shot and a second later I saw a bullet go through the windshield and then pierce my arm," added Mr. Abou Haikal, 42. "My wife was hit by a bullet that pierced the right side of her face and she was also hit by shrapnel."
"I still can't believe what happened," he said. "When more than one shot is fired, there's no warning shot, and no warning, it can't be a mistake."
The child's grandmother, Feryal Abou Haikal, 65, was also in the vehicle.
"I heard gunshots and thought it was a warning shot, then my stepdaughter was screaming and I saw her covered in blood," she told AFP.
"An infant who had barely begun his life has become yet another victim of the Israeli occupation!", denounced the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa on X.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict exploded in this territory on the sidelines of the war in Gaza, triggered by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Since then, at least 1,080 Palestinians, including many fighters but also many civilians, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian Authority.
At the same time, according to official Israeli data, at least 46 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, were killed there in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations.
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