JERUSALEM: The Israeli army is to strip two officers of their commands and reprimand a third following the death of an elderly Palestinian-American detained during a security operation in the occupied West Bank, it said on Tuesday.
The army said the death of Omar Assad on January 12 was a result of “moral failure and poor decision-making.”
Assad’s death had sparked calls for an investigation from the US State Department and from members of Congress from Wisconsin, where Assad had previously lived for decades, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Assad died after troops detained him in a late-night security operation in the village of Jiljilya, north of Ramallah.
The army said Assad had no identification and “refused to cooperate.” Soldiers tied his hands and gagged him and took him to a nearby building with three other detainees.
When troops released them, the army said they thought Assad was “asleep” and left him where he was.
A post-mortem found he died of a “stress-induced heart attack caused by the circumstances of his detention by Israeli soldiers,” the Palestinians’ official news agency Wafa reported.
“The investigation concluded that the incident was a grave and unfortunate event, resulting from a moral failure and poor decision-making on the part of the soldiers,” the army said in a statement.
Armed forces chief of staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said: “Leaving Mr. Assad alone and without checking his condition was a careless act that runs contrary to the values of the Israel Defense Force, at the center of which is the requirement to protect the sanctity of any human life.”
The troops were part of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion of religious Jews.
The investigation was carried out by the head of Central Command, which oversees operations in the West Bank.
As a result of the probe, the battalion commander will be reprimanded, while the platoon and company commanders will be stripped of their commands and “not serve in commanding roles for two years.”
The army said the military police are conducting a separate investigation into the case that could lead to criminal charges.
Israeli human rights group Btselem said Assad was 78 at the time of his death.
It said it had recorded 77 Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli security forces in the West Bank last year. More than half of those killed were not implicated in any attacks, it added.
Israel to remove two commanders over death of Palestinian-American
https://arab.news/2z2h3
Israel to remove two commanders over death of Palestinian-American
- When troops released them, the army said they thought Assad was “asleep” and left him where he was
- The troops were part of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion of religious Jews
Israel army kills West Bank attacker who tried to run over troops
- The Palestinian civil affairs authority named the man as 20-year-old Qais Sami Jaser Allan, adding that he “was shot by the occupation forces between the towns of Einabus and Awarta”
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said its troops shot dead a man who tried to run over a group of soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.
The incident occurred in Einabus in the northern West Bank, the military said.
“A short while ago, a report was received regarding a terrorist who attempted to run over IDF (Israeli army) soldiers operating in the area of Einabus,” the military said.
“In response, the soldiers fired at the terrorist and eliminated him.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it rescued three people after the Israeli army opened fire near Einabus on a vehicle with Palestinian license plates.
“Two of the wounded were shot, and one of them is in critical condition. The third was injured as a result of being beaten,” the Red Crescent said.
The Palestinian civil affairs authority named the man as 20-year-old Qais Sami Jaser Allan, adding that he “was shot by the occupation forces between the towns of Einabus and Awarta.”
The incident came just days after a Palestinian from the West Bank ran over an Israeli in his sixties with his vehicle and later stabbed an 18-year-old girl to death in northern Israel.
The perpetrator was killed during the attack.
Following that incident on Friday, the military conducted a two-day operation in the West Bank town of Qabatiya from where the attacker came, detaining several residents including his father and brothers.
Since the start of the war in Gaza following Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023, violence has also surged in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the territory, including many militants as well as dozens of civilians, according to an AFP tally based on figures from the Palestinian health ministry.
According to official Israeli figures, at least 44 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have also been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations in the same period in the West Bank.
