US concerned by death of Palestinian-American man in Israeli custody

State Department seeks additional information on what happened to Omar As'ad and who is being held to account

Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinian-American Omar As'ad. Reuters

The US State Department has called for additional information from an Israeli investigation into the death of an elderly Palestinian-American man who was detained during a security operation in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli army announced on Monday that it will strip two officers of their commands and reprimand a third following the death of 78-year-old Omar As'ad, who died during a late-night security operation in the village of Jiljilya, north of Ramallah, on January 12.

His death came as a result of “moral failure and poor decision-making”, the army said.

In Washington, the State Department noted the report and its conclusions, but called for further investigation.

“We continue to be deeply concerned by the circumstances of the death of Mr Omar As'ad,” department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

“The United States expects a thorough criminal investigation and full accountability in this case, and we welcome receiving additional information on these efforts as soon as possible. We continue to discuss this troubling incident with the Israeli government.”

The Palestinian Authority welcomed the investigation, but called on Israel to investigate all Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli troops, not only those involving US passport holders.

The Israeli army said As'ad had no identification and “refused to co-operate” when he was stopped by troops. Soldiers tied his hands and gagged him and took him to a nearby building with three other detainees.

When troops released the detainees, they thought As'ad was “asleep” and left him where he was, the army said.

A postmortem found he died of a “stress-induced heart attack caused by the circumstances of his detention by Israeli soldiers”, the Palestinian 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 Israeli army said in a statement.