Rian, his family says, was a healthy second-grader whose heart stopped from the terror he felt when soldiers arrived looking for stone throwers ■ the IDF says preliminary investigation shows the boy’s death was unconnected to the army’s actions.
Yasser Suleiman, the father of Rian, in his home in the West Bank.
Opposite Rian Suleiman’s house stands a very young boy, holding Rian’s photo. “They looked for the young ones, they entered the street and looked for the little ones,” he says angrily. In the grieving family’s home, a 10-year-old girl, a family relative, says that she saw the soldiers when it all began. “The soldiers ran behind me,” she says, still agitated.
She moves between the female members of the family, who are sitting in one of the house’s rooms, draped in a Palestinian flag. Her mother says that they were in a house next to the Suleiman family’s home, and that soldiers entered, showing her a text in Arabic, saying that they were looking for children who had been throwing stones. She tried to block them, saying there were only women in the house. “They came in and searched for 10 minutes. They had guns, and the girl started crying in fear,” she says.
Rian Suleiman, who was supposed to celebrate his eighth birthday later this month, died last week during a raid by Israeli soldiers in the village of Tekoa, looking for children who they claimed had been throwing stones. His father found Rian lying on his stomach, his hands stretched out, in the backyard of the house. No one saw the moment he collapsed.
People mourn during the funeral of seven-year-old Palestinian boy Rian Suleiman, who according to his father has died of heart failure while being chased by Israeli soldiers, east of Bethlehem.Credit: MUSSA ISSA QAWASMA/ REUTERS
According to the family he was a healthy child, and his heart stopped from the terror he felt when the soldiers arrived at his home. The family has not yet received an autopsy report. Even though the circumstances of his death have not been established yet, his death has highlighted one obvious fact: Palestinian children are living a terrifying reality, in which army raids on their homes and soldiers’ presence in their streets and near their schools is a routine matter.
Yasser Suleiman, Rian’s father, says that Rian returned home from the school he attended as a second-grader, after a festive common meal had been held for his class. “He was happy,” says Yasser. A few minutes later, around noon, Yasser heard his son yelling. He was standing by a living room window, situated on the second floor, looking out.
“He yelled that the army was chasing children,” Yasser says. He went to the window and saw three soldiers knocking on the doors of neighboring houses, many of them belonging to members of his family, and going into some of them. He heard a soldier yelling at his sister, who lives in one of the adjacent homes.
When the soldiers knocked on his door, Yasser went downstairs. “They said that they wanted my children to come down, that they had been throwing stones in the street,” he says.
According to Yasser, he told the soldiers that his children had not thrown any stones, but the soldier called him a liar. He called his sons Khaled and Ali, aged 12 and 11, and they came down too. He says that the soldiers questioned his sons for 10 minutes in an open area in front of the house, accusing them of throwing stones. When the children said they weren’t the ones throwing stones, the soldiers insisted, asking them who did.
After they left, the father went to his sister’s house to see what had transpired there. While he was there, a neighbor called him, saying his son was lying on the floor, near the door to the backyard. He got there quickly. “I saw Rian lying face down. I took him in my arms but felt no pulse. I yelled for someone to get a car. We poured water over his face, but he didn’t move.”
They took him to a local clinic and from there to hospital, where his death was determined. “On the way we saw the soldiers; we stopped and said this had happened because of them. One of them yelled at me and signaled with his hands that it he had nothing to do with it,” says the father.
According to Yasser, no one saw the moment at which his son collapsed and no one can say if there were soldiers nearby when it happened. He says that he’s not sure at what point Rian went down to the yard. What he does know is that his son was afraid of the army.
“The fear made him a martyr,” he says. “A few weeks ago, Rian woke up at night after the army entered the neighborhood. He came to my room, woke me up and said: ‘Dad, the army’s here,’” he recalls.
The family of Rian Suleiman gathers outside his home.Credit: Emil Salman
Rian’s funeral was attended by his classmates and teachers. “He really liked school, he liked writing, books and sport. I still can’t believe he’s no longer here; I think I’ll go downstairs and he’ll be there, at home,” says Yasser. Rian’s bedroom is very simple, its walls bare. It has three beds belonging to Rian, Khaled and Ali. Yasser says that Rian’s brothers also can’t internalize what happened or understand that their brother won’t be returning.
On the outer wall of the house there is a photo of Rian. In the backyard, where his father found him, sits his mother, her eyes swollen from crying, in a big circle of women. One of them, Nida, a technology teacher in the village school attended by Rian and his brothers, says that the presence of soldiers dictates schoolchildren’s lives. “Every day there is a sense that something could happen. The children’s fear is a daily feature,” she says.
The school is situated next to the main road, and she says that the presence of soldiers and vehicles very close to the school is very common, adding, “The army is there day and night.” She says that teachers take turns in order to verify that all the children go home at the end of the day, with some of them accompanying the children for part of the way due to their fear of the soldiers. “Sometimes, soldiers pass by the window during classes, signaling to the students, so that even inside the school, children don’t feel safe,” she adds.
Nida herself has a child at that school. She says that Rian’s death has greatly affected him. “He doesn’t want to go back to school, he hasn’t eaten since then. He tells me that if he goes to school he’ll die.” Sunday will be the first day that students, including Rian’s two brothers, will be returning to school since his death. “It will be a difficult day, with many students already saying they don’t want to go,” says Nida.
The Israel Defense Forces spokesperson stated that soldiers responded to stones being thrown at civilians on one of the main roads near Tekoa and searched for the suspects who had fled to the village. A preliminary examination found no connection between the death of the minor and IDF activity, which the spokesperson said did not involve weapons or riot control means.
Yasser Suleiman, the father of Rian, in his home in the West Bank. 
