The father of seven-month-old Palestinian infant Sam Fahd Abu Hekel, who was killed by Israeli gunfire in Hebron on Friday, has rejected the Israeli military's account of the shooting, saying he stopped his vehicle when instructed before soldiers opened fire, killing his son and wounding his wife.
The Israeli military said soldiers "perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them", after which troops fired "single shots toward the vehicle," in comments made to Haaretz .
"An initial inquiry found that those injured were uninvolved civilians," the military said. "The IDF expresses deep sorrow for any harm caused to uninvolved individuals."
Sam's father, Fahd Abu Hekel, disputed that version of events.
"The soldier was about ten meters away from me. He saw me, he saw my wife and the children. The car windows were not dark, it was daylight and everything was clear. You can't say he didn't see that it was a family," he told Haaretz .
"I stopped as I was asked to, and then they simply shot at the car," he added.
According to Abu Hekel, there was no organised military checkpoint at the scene.
"There was no clear checkpoint, just soldiers who were on the street. I stopped when I was asked to, and then the shooting took place," he said.
The shooting occurred on Friday evening near the 17th Roundabout south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
According to relatives who spoke to The New Arab , the family had been travelling from Bethlehem to the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood of Hebron when Israeli forces were carrying out an operation in the area.
Sam's grandmother, Ferial Abu Hekel, said the family's vehicle approached Israeli soldiers before one of them fired a single shot without warning.
The bullet pierced the vehicle's front windscreen and struck Sam while he was in his mother's arms, according to the family. It then struck his mother in the jaw, while his father was wounded by shrapnel.
The family rushed Sam and his mother to Hebron Government Hospital, but the infant later died of his injuries.
His grandmother said Sam's mother was not informed of her son's death until Saturday morning because relatives feared the impact the news would have on her condition as she recovered from her injuries.
The killing carried an additional personal tragedy for the family. Sam was born on 5 November last year and was killed on 5 June, the day he turned seven months old.
His grandmother said she had remarked on the coincidence to the child's mother earlier that day, telling her: "Today marks seven months since your son was born."
Speaking to The New Arab , she said she would seek accountability for the killing through international and local institutions and insisted that the family would remain on its land in Tel Rumeida despite repeated pressures and attacks.
On Saturday, Palestinians held funeral prayers for Sam at the Abu Aisha Mosque at Palestine Polytechnic University in Hebron before he was buried in the city's Martyrs' Cemetery.