On January 25, 2025, the Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), reports that a two-year-old girl has been shot in the head during an Israeli raid on Muthalath Ash-Shuhada/ Martyr's Triangle, a village south of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

According to her family, they were eating dinner at home when the gunfire started. It was around 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25, and Israeli soldiers had entered their village of Muthalath Al-Shuhada, located near Jenin in the occupied West Bank. Suddenly Israeli sniper lasers appeared inside the house, and bullets were suddenly fired directly at them. She was her mother’s only child, as her father had passed away when she was still an infant.

The PRCS is reported to have added that its crews had transferred the injured child to a hospital for treatment.

Around 22:20, Palestinian Ministry of Health : "The child Laila Al-Khatib (two and a half years old) died of critical wounds after being shot in the head by the occupation forces in the Martyrs' Triangle in Jenin."

Testimony of Bassam Assous, the Leila grand-father :

(source)

“The windows and shutters were closed — we had no idea what was going on outside until we heard shooting very close by,” Assous and his wife, Ghada, quickly moved away from the windows, while their two daughters, Shaimaa and Teema (the Leila's mother), hid in a bedroom with Teema’s 2-year-old daughter, Laila. Suddenly, Assous heard his daughters screaming. “I rushed to the bedroom with my wife; Shaimaa was holding Laila tightly, while Teema was screaming next to them,” he recounted. “I took hold of Laila, and my hands quickly became covered in blood. It was coming from her head — she had been hit with a bullet.” Carrying his granddaughter, bleeding and unconscious, Assous ran outside to the street only to find that it was full of Israeli soldiers and armored vehicles. “My wife screamed, ‘Why did you kill the girl? What did she do to you?’” he continued. “One of the soldiers, standing some distance away, responded, ‘Sorry.’ “I shouted back, ‘Why did you shoot her?’” Assous went on. “The soldiers pointed their weapons at me and told me not to come closer. My wife kept screaming, and one of the soldiers pointed to a spot 100 meters away and told her, ‘Go over there and wait for an ambulance.’” When the ambulance arrived, Ghada got in with Laila. Shaimaa, who had sustained shrapnel wounds from the shooting in her jaw and side, and Teema, who had shrapnel wounds in her right hand, also needed treatment. “I told the soldiers I wanted to go with my daughters, but they said, ‘No, you will come with us,’” Assous added. “The soldiers took me to my uncle’s house, where they had already detained four of his sons while my uncle and the rest of the family sat nearby,” he recounted. “I had no idea what was happening with my wife and daughters — we weren’t allowed to use our phones or even speak. When I insisted on calling, a soldier threatened to handcuff me. I remained detained like this until around 11:30 p.m. when the soldiers withdrew from the area. They didn’t arrest anyone or confiscate anything. “After the soldiers left, neighbors came to check on us,” Assous went on. “That’s when I learned that Leila had passed away, as they began offering their condolences. I was in shock, but I quickly realized I had to appear strong for my daughter Teema, who broke down in tears and couldn’t comprehend the loss of her child. I took her to a nearby medical center, where she was given sedatives.” Assous explained that Teema — who is a master’s student at An-Najah University in Nablus, specializing in environmental and water engineering — had already lost her husband, Mohammad Al-Khatib, two years ago in a workplace accident. “She had been struggling with the trauma of losing her husband, so I brought her and her daughter to live with us at home,” he explained. “She used to say, ‘I just want to raise my daughter and take care of her.’ Now, she keeps asking me, ‘Why did they kill my daughter? What did this little child do to deserve this?’”

Israeli Army statement

In response to +972’s inquiry, a spokesperson for the Israeli army said it “regrets any harm caused to uninvolved civilians,” and claimed it had received intelligence about terrorists barricading themselves inside a building in the village. According to the spokesperson, soldiers warned everyone inside “multiple times” to exit before opening fire. Assous denied hearing any such warning.

Context :

Israeli special Israeli occupying forces barged their way into the village and besieged a house, earlier in the evening. They deployed snipers around the house and ordered the occupants to come out via loudspeakers, triggering confrontations. A woman sustained an injury to the hand from live ammunition fired by Israeli soldiers. She also was injured in the head by bullet shrapnel.

Name of the young martyr :

• Laila Muhammad Al-Khatib

The holes left by Israeli army bullets in the window of his family's home

Bassam Assous holds the body of his granddaughter, Laila Al-Khatib, after she was killed in her home by Israeli forces, Jan. 26, 2025. (Wahaj Bani Moufleh/Activestills)

B'Tselem investigation:

source:

On Saturday evening, 25 January 2025, Israeli soldiers entered the village of Muthallath a-Shuhada in Jenin District in three civilian vehicles with Palestinian license plates, and took over the home of the a-Sukar family on the main street.

Around 7:30 P.M., while the ‘As’us family was preparing to sit down to dinner in their second-floor apartment across from the commandeered building, they heard gunfire on the street. At home at that time were Bassam ‘As’us (58), his wife Intisar (51), and their three daughters: Shaymaa (22), Nimar (18), and Taymaa (25), along with Taymaa’s 2-year-old daughter, Layla. The family sat on the floor, hoping it would be safer. Bassam and Intisar ‘As’us remained in the living room while the daughters and granddaughter went into their room.

While the family was sitting on the floor, gunfire suddenly erupted toward the house. Taymaa and Shaymaa were injured by shrapnel in their upper bodies, and Layla, who was sitting in her mother’s lap, was critically injured by a bullet to the head. Bassam and Intisar picked up the toddler, who was bleeding heavily, and rushed downstairs to the street, where they encountered soldiers in uniform. They also saw soldiers looking out of the second-floor window in the a-Sukar home, which faces their own. Bassam, who was carrying the bleeding child, asked an officer why they had fired at his home, and the officer apologized.

The couple hailed a local car that took them to the medical center in the nearby town of Qabatiya. From there, a Red Crescent ambulance took them to a-Razi Hospital in Jenin, where Layla was declared dead after attempts to save her life. Meanwhile, a relative called an ambulance that took Taymaa and Shaymaa to the same hospital, where they were treated and discharged that evening.

The soldiers remained in the village until 11:00 P.M. During that time they engaged in sporadic exchanges of fire with armed Palestinians, with no additional casualties, and raided three other homes, apparently in search of armed operatives, but no arrests were made.

In a response to Haaretz, the military stated that the soldiers fired at the house "where, according to intel, a wanted terrorist was barricading himself" and that "immediately after noticing they had hit the child, the soldiers called the Red Crescent and also evacuated the child's pregnant mother." The military later added that "the forces arrived at the building and began operating gradually, including several calls on the loudspeaker for the people in the house to come out. After no one came out, the forces continued with their procedure and opened fire […] the incident will be investigated, and lessons will be learned accordingly."

However, B’Tselem's investigation found that the family did not hear any calls directed at their house and that Layla was evacuated in a civilian car, while her mother, who was not pregnant, and her aunt were evacuated by an ambulance summoned by a relative. Furthermore, no one was barricaded in their apartment, and the only man in it that evening was Bassam ‘As’us.

B’Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi gathered testimonies from family members on 26 January 2025:

Layla’s mother, Taymaa al-Khatib, a 26-year-old widow, said in her testimony:

On Saturday evening, around 7:30 P.M., my mother Intisar was preparing pita bread with za'atar for dinner. I was sitting at the dining table in the living room with my daughter Layla in my lap. My sisters Shaymaa and Nimar were sitting next to me. Suddenly, we heard gunshots near our house, which is on the main street that runs through the village. We got a real fright, because we didn’t even know the army was in the village.

In the living room there are windows facing the main street. My sisters and I crouched down and crawled to our room, which is opposite the living room, and sat down on the floor there, below the height of the windows. We took our food with us. Layla was scared and sat on my lap. My parents sat down on the floor in the living room.

A few moments later, shooting started into our house. We didn’t understand where the shots were coming from. Layla was shot in the head while sitting on my lap, and blood burst out of the back of her head. My sister, who was sitting next to me, was hit by shrapnel. About the same time, I think I was hit by shrapnel in my right arm, but I didn’t feel it at the time. It was terrifying and we started screaming. My parents were sitting in the part of the living room that’s protected by a concrete wall. They weren’t hit but were in shock. They grabbed Layla and went down to the street, and we followed them.

We were surprised when we saw soldiers on the street near the home of the a-Sukar family, right across from our house. My father was holding Layla in his arms, and her head was still bleeding. He started yelling at the soldiers in English. One of the soldiers looked at my child and I heard him say to my father in English: 'I'm sorry.'"

Layla’s grandfather, Bassam ‘As’us, 58, a father of five, said in his testimony:

The girls were sitting on the floor of their room to eat when the shooting started toward our windows. My wife Intisar and I were sitting on the floor in the living room. My granddaughter Layla was sitting on her mother’s lap, who was feeding her, and suddenly she was shot in the back of the head. My daughters were also injured: Taymaa was hit by shrapnel in her right arm, and Shaymaa was also hit by shrapnel.

The house was filled with screaming by the entire family. My wife and I picked up the child, who was bleeding heavily from the head, and went down the stairs. Outside, I saw soldiers near the house of our neighbors, the a-Sukar family, which is right across from our house. I also saw soldiers positioned in the window of the a-Sukar family’s home, which directly faces the windows of my house. They were holding rifles aimed at us.

I started yelling at one of the officers in English. I asked him why they’d killed the child. The officer came over, looked at my granddaughter, and said to me in English: 'I’m sorry, she was hit by mistake.' We tried to call an ambulance, but there was no ambulance nearby, so I walked with my wife and the girls to find a car to take Layla to the nearest medical center. After 100 meters, we stopped a local car that me, Intisar and Layla to the medical center in Qabatiya. From there, we were transferred by a Red Crescent ambulance to a-Razi Hospital in Jenin. The doctors there tried to save Layla’s life, but the injury was fatal and she didn’t make it.