Israel to punish three military officials over death of Palestinian-American man

The Israeli military has said that they would punish a senior officer and remove two others from their position over the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian man with US citizenship, according to AP. The Palestinian man was brought out of his car and blindfolded after being stopped at a checkpoint in the West Bank on January 12. Omar Asaad was asleep when they cut his zip-ties and left him in an abandoned building where he had been detained with three other Palestinians in January.

Omar Assad was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead after the other detainees found him unconscious. The Israeli military in a statement informed that the incident was "grave and unfortunate" which has been caused due to "moral failure" and "poor decision making" by the soldiers.

Furthermore, the military police are conducting a separate criminal investigation. Assad had extended family living in the United States and the State Department has raised concern over his death and called for an investigation. Assad was born in Jiljilya, however, he lived for 40 years in the United States before he returned to his village in 2009 to retire with his wife, AP reported citing his family members. 

Omar Assad was stopped at checkpoint on January 12

According to the Palestinian autopsy, Assad died of a heart attack "caused by psychological tension due to the external violence," as per the AP report. The autopsy further stated that the person was suffering from underlying health issues and had bruises on his head, redness on his wrists and bleeding in his eyelids after being tightly blindfolded. Asaad was stopped at around 3 am on January 12 at a temporary checkpoint in Jiljiliya village in the West Bank. The military informed that he did not have any form of ID proof and he did not "cooperate with the security check." 

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The investigation revealed that there was no use of violence except when Assad was apprehended after he refused to cooperate. According to the military, the commander of the battalion will be reprimanded and the platoon commander and company commander will both be removed from their positions and barred from commanding roles for two years. US Senator Tammy Baldwin and Representative Gwen Moore sent a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on him to conduct the probe into Assad’s death and insisted that Assad deserved full protection provided to the US citizens living abroad and his family deserves all the answers. 

Inputs from AP

Image: AP