Murder of Shalhevet Pass

Killing of an Israeli baby by a Palestinian sniper in Hebron

The murder of Shalhevet Pass was a shooting attack carried out in Hebron, West Bank, on 26 March 2001, in which a Palestinian sniper killed 10 month old Israeli infant Shalhevet Pass. The event shocked the Israeli public, partly because an investigation ruled that the sniper had deliberately aimed for the baby.

At 4:00 pm on 26 March 2001, Shalhevet was shot in her stroller while accompanied by her parents from a parking lot by Hebron's Avraham Avinu neighborhood, where the family lived. After a ten minute lull, the Palestinian sniper resumed firing from the Abu Sneinah neighborhood on the hill opposite. her mother grabbed her when she heard the gunshots, only to discover that the baby was already dead. One of the sniper's bullets penetrated the baby's head, passing through her skull, and hit her father as well. Shalhevet's father, Yitzchak Pass, a student, who had been pushing the stroller, was also seriously wounded minutes later by two bullets. Press accounts indicated that the playground was very busy at the time, because a load of new sand had recently been delivered. According to the Israeli government, an investigation concluded that the sniper had intentionally targeted the baby. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said: <blockquote>The fact that they could pick off the baby and then the father makes this a hideous, deliberate, cold blooded murder. Snipers are not just gun toting youth If Arafat had wanted, the sniper would not have been there.

The Associated Press ran the story with the headline "Jewish toddler dies in West Bank", and was criticized by Joshua Levy in his book The Agony of the Promised Land for downplaying the murder. The Voice of Palestine, the Palestinian Authority's official radio station, reported that the report of the girl's shooting death was a lie, and that the girl's mother had murdered her own baby.

A song was dedicated to the memory of "Baby Shalhevet", sung by Avraham Fried at a concert in Hebron. The song was written by Fried's brother, Rabbi Manis Friedman.