Israel's military announced on Sunday that its Military Police Criminal Investigation Division will conduct a formal inquiry into the death of a Palestinian infant shot by an Israeli soldier in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The military confirmed that seven-month-old Sam Fahd Abu Haikal died and that his mother and father were injured on Friday after a soldier opened fire on the family's vehicle. Officials said a preliminary examination prompted the decision to open the military police investigation. Upon completion, results will be forwarded to the Military Advocate General's Office, the military added in a statement.
In its initial account of the episode, the military said that a soldier fired one round at a car that troops believed was accelerating toward them. The military has not publicly identified any of the soldiers present at the scene, nor has it clarified whether those soldiers remain on duty.
The infant's father, Fahd Abu Haikal, who was driving in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood near the West Bank city of Hebron, gave a different account of the sequence of events to reporters on Saturday. He said the vehicle had come to a halt after he saw soldiers on the road, and that a soldier standing 10 metres in front fired through the windscreen.
"The bullet penetrated the front windshield, went through my arm, and then struck my son in the head and my wife in the face," Fahd said.
The military's statement and the father's account present differing descriptions of whether the car was moving toward troops at the time the shot was fired. The investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division will examine the circumstances and produce findings for the Military Advocate General's Office to consider.
At present, public details remain limited to the military's brief statements and the father's on-the-record account. The identity and status of the soldiers who fired the shot have not been disclosed.
Context and next steps
The formal opening of a military police criminal probe follows the military's preliminary examination. The probe's findings will be transferred to the Military Advocate General's Office when complete. Until the investigation is concluded and the Military Advocate General's Office reviews the results, there is no public resolution to the differing accounts of what occurred.