JERUSALEM -- The Israeli military said Tuesday that it would reprimand a senior officer and remove two others from leadership roles over the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian who was dragged from a car, bound and blindfolded after being stopped at a checkpoint.
In a rare statement acknowledging error, the army said the soldiers believed Omar Assad, who has U.S. citizenship, was asleep when they cut his zip-ties and left him face-down in an abandoned building where he had been detained with three other Palestinians last month. The other detainees said they did not know he was there until after the army left.
It's unclear when Assad died. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead after the other detainees found him unconscious.
"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 in a statement. A separate criminal investigation by the military police is still underway.
Assad, who lived in America for four decades, still has family in the country. He became a U.S. citizen before returning to the West Bank in 2009 to retire with his wife, Nazmia, the family said.
Even after Israel announced that the soldiers would be reprimanded and high-ranking leaders weighed in with criticism, the U.S. said Tuesday that it remains concerned over the death.
"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," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Two members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation called on the Biden administration to investigate.
The Israeli military says it thoroughly investigates such incidents.
The military commander, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, called the soldiers' conduct "immoral and reprehensible," and Defense Minister Benny Gantz expressed sorrow over Assad's death.
But the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said Israel rarely holds soldiers accountable for the deaths of Palestinians and said Assad's case probably got special attention because of U.S. pressure and his American citizenship.
"Investigations usually take years and usually close with nothing," said Dror Sadot, the group's spokeswoman. "This is very unusual."
Even in the most shocking cases -- and those captured on video -- soldiers often get relatively light sentences. Palestinians say they suffer systematic mistreatment living under military occupation. B'Tselem is tracking more than 30 open investigations into the killings of Palestinians in the West Bank, Sadot said.
A Palestinian autopsy said Assad died of a heart attack "caused by psychological tension due to the external violence he was exposed to." It said he suffered from underlying health conditions but also found bruises on his head, redness on his wrists from being bound, and bleeding in his eyelids from being tightly blindfolded.
Assad was stopped at about 3 a.m. Jan. 12 at a temporary checkpoint in his home village of Jiljiliya, in the occupied West Bank. The military said he did not have any form of ID and "refused to cooperate with the security check." Its investigation found there was no use of violence "apart from when (Assad) was apprehended after refusing to cooperate."
It said the soldiers "did not identify signs of distress" when they released the detainees a half-hour later. They "assumed that (Assad) was asleep and did not try to wake him."
The military said the commander of the battalion will be reprimanded and the platoon and company commanders will be removed from their positions and barred from commanding roles for two years.
Information for this article was contributed by Todd Richmond, Laurie Kellman and Matt Lee of The Associated Press.
FILE - Mourners pray by the body of 78-year-old Omar Assad, a Palestinian who has U.S. citizenship, during his funeral at a mosque, in the West Bank village of Jiljiliya, north of Ramallah, Jan. 13, 2022. Two members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation asked the Biden administration Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, to investigate how a Palestinian-American who lived in Milwaukee before moving back to his home village died at a West Bank checkpoint. Assad, 78, died after Israeli troops stopped him at a checkpoint in his native village of Jiljilya during the early morning hours of Jan. 12, according to family members and media reports. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File)
