📰 Volltext
tags: [palestine]
📝 Zusammenfassung
Haaretz-Leitartikel: Die Erschiessung des 7 Monate alten Sam Abu Haikal durch IDF-Soldaten in Hebron ist kein Einzelfall. Der Vater hielt auf Anweisung an - dann fielen Schüsse auf die Familie. Die IDF beruft sich auf 'Gefahrengefühl'. Der Leitartikel prangert ein System an, in dem jeder Soldat jeden Palästinenser erschiessen kann. Stabschef Eyal Zamir müsse diesen gefährlichen Trend stoppen: 'Palästinensisches Blut darf nicht ungestraft vergossen werden.'
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tags: [palestine]
📰 Volltext (Haaretz) - Haaretz Editorial, 7. Juni 2026
A shooting by an IDF force on Friday at the car of the Abu Haikal family in Hebron ended with the killing of 7-month-old Sam Abu Haikal and the wounding of his parents.
According to the father, he stopped his car at the request of soldiers in broad daylight, with his hands on the steering wheel, and then the shooting began. Sam, who was in his mothers arms in the back seat, was hit in the head and died a short while later. The mother was moderately wounded.
The IDF spokesman confirmed that "uninvolved" people had been hit, but claimed that the soldiers felt that the car was accelerating toward them, and one of them responded by firing a few shots at the vehicle. One cannot make do with this IDF jargon describing these incidents. One cannot resign oneself to descriptions of the killing of the baby Sam as a "regrettable event," or as another isolated "incident," which will get lost in some internal investigation held in the best IDF tradition.
This was a heinous moral and operational failure reflecting a clear and worrisome trend showing a growing number of live and lethal fire incidents by security forces in the West Bank in which uninvolved Palestinians are injured, sometimes followed by claims that the soldiers involved had "felt endangered."
Last March, four Palestinian family members were killed in the town of Tammun while they were in their car during an IDF operation that included undercover police working with the army. That incident, in which a family had gone holiday shopping at the end of Ramadan, also ended with additional wounded children and harsh testimony of shots fired at a civilian vehicle.
To this should be added indiscriminate shooting at Palestinian laborers trying to cross the separation barrier in order to make a living. The thread connecting these incidents is not just their tragic outcome, but the same pattern in which lethal force is employed too rapidly, without supervision, under the automatic heading of "a threat was identified."
At the same time, there is a growing and dangerous symbiosis between violent settlers who have abandoned all constraints and the IDF. As recently as Saturday, settlers and a soldier were videotaped beating two Palestinians with clubs in the town of Hawara.
Firing at "uninvolved Palestinians," as the individuals are often defined by the army itself, raises a deep question regarding the rules of engagement and the IDFs mechanisms of oversight and responsibility. The sense is that every soldier is a potential killing machine that could fire at any Palestinian, even children or babies, when a "sense of danger" becomes the rationale that halts any discussion in its tracks.
Responsibility does not end with the combat soldier on the ground, but applies directly to senior commanders who define the rules of engagement and the scope allowed for deliberation. Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir cannot evade his responsibility for what is happening in the territories and for the light finger on the trigger. If he does not bring his full authority to bear and change this dangerous trend, he will be remembered as someone on whose watch the IDFs morals and values collapsed, allowing the killing of Palestinians to become common practice. To avoid this, he must ensure that this incident is thoroughly investigated with personal lessons drawn. Palestinian blood cannot be shed indiscriminately.
The above article is Haaretz lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.
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tags: [palestine]