West Bank:
Twelve-year-old Ayman Nasser al-Haymouny was visiting a relative in the southern city of Hebron in occupied West Bank when he was shot in the back and killed by Israeli forces last Friday. He was among 16 Palestinian children who have been targeted by Israeli troops in the West Bank since the beginning of 2025, despite them “posing no real threat to the soldiers,” an international human rights organization said.
A CCTV footage from the February 21 incident has emerged on social media showing moments when al-Hammouni was killed, shot by Israeli fire. He was rushed to hospital where he died from his injuries.
The killing comes as the Israeli military carries out large-scale overnight raids across the West Bank for several weeks now, including in Nablus, Tulkarem, Jenin and Nablus, according to a report by Al-Jazeera.
The Video
Al-Haymouny and his 10-year-old brother, Aysar al-Haymouny, had gone with their mother to visit their grandfather and uncles who lived in Hebron’s Jabal Jawhar–an area run by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Jabal Jawhar is near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where Abraham and his biblical family are supposedly buried, a site sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians.
On Friday nights, Jewish settlers come to pray there. Prior to their visits, IDF conducts aggressive patrols in the surrounding Palestinian districts. On the fateful Friday night, at about 6.30 pm, al-Haymouny had just run an errand to his grandfather’s flat and returned to his uncle Tariq’s house when a shot was heard from the main road, according to a report by The Guardian.
CCTV footage captures the moment Israeli occupation forces shoot and kill 11-year-old Palestinian child Ayman Al-Haimouni in Al-Ksara area in Hebron yesterday. pic.twitter.com/DI5f2vVXXc
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) February 22, 2025
On hearing the shots, al-Haymoun and two of his cousins came out of Mr Tariq’s house along with another of his uncles, Nadeem al-Ajlouni, who helped a neighbour whose car was shot by the Israeli troops moments ago. Then there is more commotion from the alleyway and another shot, sending the small knot of people scurrying for cover, including al-Haymouny and his cousins.
The child runs inside the gate of Mr Tariq’s house and out of view of the cameras, when another shot rings out from down the alleyway. This was the bullet that is believed to have hit al-Haymoun. The footage does not prove beyond question who fired it, but it does make clear it came from the direction of Israeli soldiers who were advancing on the house and who arrived at the scene seconds later.
Killing Of Children In West Bank
The killing of children on the West Bank is not out of the ordinary, especially since the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stepped up operations in the occupied territory after the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 and the beginning of the Gaza war. The intensity has increased since the January ceasefire in the strip.
So far this year, about 16 Palestinian children have been killed despite them “posing no real threat to the soldiers,” according to the Defense for Children International.
“The failure to hold Israeli soldiers accountable for their violations against Palestinians has effectively given them the green light to continue their actions,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the accountability program director of the Defense for Children International, told Anadolu.
In 2024, 93 children were killed by Israeli troops. Human rights workers fear the numbers may continue to increase as the IDF brings Gaza techniques to the West Bank, evacuating tens of thousands of people from their homes, flattening districts and loosening further the “rules of engagement”.