Israeli officers removed over death of elderly Palestinian-American man

Men stand next to a poster announcing the death of Omar Asad in the village of Jiljilya

The Israeli military will remove two officers from their posts and reprimand a battalion commander over the death of an elderly Palestinian-American man.

Omar Asad, 78, died following his detention by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank last month.

A Palestinian post-mortem found he suffered a heart attack caused by "the stress of external violence".

An Israeli military inquiry found that the incident was the result of "a moral failure" by the soldiers involved.

Military police are carrying out a separate investigation that could lead to criminal charges.

Omar Asad had been out in his village of Jiljilya, near Ramallah, when his car was stopped at a temporary checkpoint in the early hours of 12 January.

The head of Jiljilya's council said that soldiers blindfolded him, bound his hands and held him at a nearby building site with several other people. He was found dead there after the soldiers withdrew.

The post-mortem carried out by three Palestinian doctors found that Asad, who had previously undergone heart surgery, died "as a result of sudden cardiac arrest stemming from the stress of external violence". It also found abrasions on his wrists and bleeding on the insides of his eyelids.

A summary of the Israeli military's inquiry published on Monday said Asad refused to co-operate with the soldiers, that "his hands were tied and he was gagged for a short time", and that he was released after being detained for half an hour.

"The soldiers did not identify signs of distress or other suspicious signs concerning Asad's health. The soldiers assessed that Asad was asleep and did not try to wake him," it added.

The investigators also determined that "there was no use of violence during the incident apart from when Asad was apprehended".

However, the soldiers "failed in their obligations by leaving Asad lying on the floor without the required treatment and without reporting the incident back to their commanders".

"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 military said.

Chief of Staff Lt Gen Aviv Kochavi said: "Leaving Mr Asad alone and without checking his condition was a careless act that runs contrary to the values of the Israel Defense Forces, at the centre of which is the requirement to protect the sanctity of any human life."

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