Washington urges ‘Israel’ to probe 7-year-old Palestinian boy’s death

Washington (QNN)- The Biden administration called on Israeli occupation to open an investigation into the death of a 7-year-old Palestinian boy in the occupied West Bank on Thursday while being chased by Israeli forces.

“We are heartbroken by the reports of the death of an innocent child. We support an immediate and thorough investigation around the circumstances of his death,” US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Thursday in a briefing with reporters.

On Thursday, 7-year-old Rayan Suliman died after his heart stopped beating out of fear while being chased by Israeli occupation soldiers in the village of Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem.

The Palestinian education ministry said Suliman died while being chased by Israeli soldiers after he and other students left his school in the Bethlehem District.

Suliman’s father also said in a video circulated on social media that his son was coming home from school with other childs when Israeli soldiers gave chase, and he “died on the spot from fear.”

The education ministry mourned the child as “a martyr” and called on the international community to “hold the occupation accountable for its crimes”.

One day before Suliman’s death, four Palestinian youths were assassinated by Israeli occupation forces during an aggressive raid on the Jenin refugee camp, north of Jenin city.

Following the killings, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the Biden administration is “deeply concerned by the deteriorating security situation in the West Bank.”

He said that since the beginning of 2022, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank and more than 30 in Gaza.

“We call on the parties themselves to contain the violence. The United States and other international partners stand ready to help but we cannot substitute for vital actions by the parties to mitigate conflict and to restore calm,” Price said.