The story we are told is of a Palestinian sniper shooting a Jewish baby through the head and wounding the child's father. We are told the father was walking and carrying the child and was wounded in the leg by the same bullet. There was no autopsey not even an official report by a medical examiner. Here is the picture given as evidence to the world.

Few of us are used to seeing death. For most a quick glance at most and we turn away. Now let us compare the image and the story to assess what truth if any there may be in the story.

A bullet through an adult's head is a messy affair. Anyone who has reviewed the Zapruder film of John F. Kennedy's assassination has seen it happen. Anyone who has the description of the damage has read of a large piece of skull blown away, brains blown out and perhaps some terms even more gory.

A child's head would suffer greater destruction. There is no such damage in the picture. No bullet went through the head of this child. If you are not familiar with the damage caused by a highspeed bullet on this link shows the effect on a watermelon.

We do see a small amount of blood. That blood is still bright red indicating the picture was taken shortly before or after death. Because of that there was no time to clean the body of blood. If the claim is made the body was indeed washed then the child was alive when washed as the picture shows blood, fresh and therefore pumped by a working heart.

This infant was not shot through the head. We have at most a grazing wound.

We can learn more even though we cannot tell from the picture and as noted there was no autopsey. To get more information we look at the rest of the story.

We note the father was 1) walking, 2) carrying the infant, and 3) hit in the leg by the same bullet. The same bullet had to travel in a straight line from rifle to head to leg. In the most generous definition of leg the child's head had to be below waist level. That is not possible for any means of carrying a child.

The infant was not hit by the bullet.

But only one bullet is reported and the father was treated for a bullet wound.

Let's put the facts together without the story. The father was walking and carrying the child. A bullet hit him in the leg he loses balance and falls. He may or may not have dropped the baby. In either event the infant's head contacts the hard pavement and dies of blunt force trauma to the head. The father may or may not have fallen on top of the child adding to her injuries.

This explains the small amount of blood and the lack any indication of a bullet wound to the head.

As the story is false in its essentials we have a legitimate right to question the rest of the story.

Where did the bullet come from? When the story had it the target was an infant, who else could it have been but those who have been demonized. Now that we have no reason to believe it was an attempt to kill it frankly sounds more like a gun accident.

To answer that we need medical details from the physician who attended the leg wound and we need information on the direction the man was walking and exactly where he was when it occurred. From those we can get information on the entry angle and possible origins of the bullet. And from the topography of the area if any Palestinian area was a possible source.

It is also important to recover the bullet and determine what could have fired it. Neither the AK-47 nor the M-16 is suitable, extremely unsuitable, to be used as a sniper rifle. If it was a bullet from either a hit from long range would be clearly accidental. The bullet could turn out to be handgun round indicating a close range accident.

Another issue has to be raised. The child shows the signs of morbidity in the lips and face. Here we have an "improptu" photo where the people have had the presence of mind to provide the professional photographer's touch of a backdrop.

Certainly scarves would likely be available and two different patterns are seen. The child is not just laying on the scarves but they form a vertical backdrop completely taking the infant from context.

Any parent I can imagine would be holding the child long after it was dead rather than posing it for a picture immediately after death. Something is rotten and Israel is not Denmark.

This event occurred in occupied Hebron where the non-jewish population is under permanent, oppressive military rule to safeguard about 500 squatters.