A seven-month-old Palestinian baby was killed, and his parents were wounded by Israeli gunfire in the Tel Rumeida area south of the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday evening, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The ministry identified the infant as Sam Fahd Abu Haikal and said he was killed at the scene, while his parents were wounded in the shooting and were in moderate condition.
The baby's grandmother said the family was driving near Checkpoint 17 when they saw Israeli military vehicles and soldiers in the distance and stopped the car. She said shots were then fired toward them, which they initially believed were warning shots.
"One bullet struck my grandson, traversed his face and crossed his head, striking his mother's cheek where it lodged," she said, adding that the bullet had also grazed the father's finger, and that the mother was in hospital.
The Israeli military claimed that during activity in the Hebron area on Friday, soldiers perceived a vehicle accelerating toward them, and one soldier fired single shots at the vehicle. It said three Palestinians were wounded and evacuated for medical treatment.
An initial Israeli military inquiry found that those injured were "uninvolved civilians", the military said, adding that the incident was under review and that the findings would be submitted to the relevant authorities.
Tel Rumeida, an area of Hebron where Israeli settlers live under heavy military protection among Palestinian residents, has long been a flashpoint for violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces also shot dead an 18-year-old Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said Friday. The military claimed it had killed someone who threw firebombs at vehicles.
In the early hours of Friday, the health ministry said it had been informed of "the martyrdom of the young man Haitham Ezzedine Omar Hmeida, 18, by occupation gunfire in the village of Beitin," north east of Ramallah.
It added that the man's body was being withheld.
In a statement, the Israeli military claimed its forces had "identified several terrorists throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli vehicles travelling on a major roadway" near the village of Beitin.
"The soldiers opened fire at the terrorists and eliminated one of them," the military said, adding that its forces were "currently pursuing the remaining suspects."
Over 700,000 settlers live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank among more than 3 million Palestinians, according to a European Union report in 2024.