‘What did a little baby do to harm the soldiers?’: Israel’s West Bank violence leaves Palestinian mothers grieving children

A Palestinian mother's grief over the loss of her young son to Israeli forces in the West Bank has been highlighted in a recent report. Alia al-Hallaq lost her son Mohammed, aged nine, to a stray Israeli army bullet during a confrontation with a group of older youths in their village of Al-Rihiya. Hallaq's uncle stated that Mohammed was killed when the bullet traveled through his abdomen during the altercation.

The Israeli military, however, claimed that soldiers opened fire during an altercation with suspects who were hurling rocks, with hits being identified. Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, Palestinian children and teenagers have been increasingly killed by Israeli forces, with B'Tselem, an Israeli rights group, reporting 235 such deaths since October 7, 2023, through June 2026.

This includes five children killed by Israeli settlers. The Palestinian Authority's Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission reported 250 such deaths over the same period.

Brief written by urgent.news from Malay Mail's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.