Palestinians mourn boy who died ‘of fear’ of Israeli troops

By Isabel Debre, Associated Press, Tequa, West Bank

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Transcribed from the clipping

“TEQUA, West Bank — A throng of men clutching the body of a 7-year-old Palestinian boy marched through a town in the occupied West Bank toward the child’s final resting place on Friday, a day after his parents say he died from fear of Israeli soldiers.

Rayan Suleiman, with bright eyes and a backpack emblazoned with an animated race car, was walking home from school on Thursday when his family says he and his brothers were chased by Israeli soldiers. After the boys bolted home, the troops banged furiously on the door and threatened to arrest the children, their parents say.

Just moments later, Rayan, the youngest of the three brothers, was dead… The Israeli army called the death a tragedy and said its soldiers were not to blame… ‘He was just an innocent boy, just 7 years old, what can he do?’

Yasser Suleiman, Rayan’s father, told The Associated Press outside the hospital morgue on Friday, choking back tears… The State Department demanded an investigation… entrenched Israeli military rule that is now in its 56th year.”

How this transcription was made

The paper is The Daily Item of Lynn, Massachusetts, page B7, confirmed by matching the headline’s line breaks and the opening paragraph against the page itself. The Daily Item of Sunbury, Pennsylvania ran the same Associated Press story that day on page A3, set differently.

Context added by this archive

A seven-year-old Palestinian named in an American headline, and his father named and quoted outside the morgue. The Israeli army’s account is in the fourth paragraph.

Cite this clipping

"Palestinians mourn boy who died ‘of fear’ of Israeli troops," The Daily Item, 1 October 2022, p. B7. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2022-039. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2022-039