Palestinian-American man dies of heart attack during aggressive Israeli arrest operation
Palestinian media reported that 80-year-old Omar Abdulmajeed Asaad, a Palestinian-American dual citizen, died of a heart attack early Wednesday morning after he was arrested by Israeli forces during a raid on his hometown of Jiljilya.
BY YUMNA PATEL
OMAR ABDULMAJEED ASAAD, 80, DIED OF A HEART ATTACK AFTER HE WAS DETAINED BY ISRAELI FORCES IN THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK ON JANUARY 12, 2022. (PHOTO: TWITTER)
Palestinians grieved on Wednesday over the latest victim of the Israeli occupation: an elderly Palestinian-American man, who died after being arrested, handcuffed, blindfolded, and dragged across the ground by the Israeli army.
Palestinian media reported that 80-year-old Omar Abdulmajeed Asaad, a Palestinian-American dual citizen, died of a heart attack early Wednesday morning after he was arrested by Israeli forces during a raid on his hometown of Jiljilya, a village north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
According to reports, Asaad was driving home at around 2:30 am when he was stopped by Israeli soldiers, who were conducting a raid in the area.
The soldiers then allegedly pulled him out of his car, dragged him across the ground for about 200 meters, handcuffed him, gagged him, and forced him to lie on his stomach, Middle East Eye reported.
The head of Jiljilya’s local council Fouad Moutee told Wafa news that the soldiers detained four other residents of the village in the same manner.
Moutee said that the soldiers left the area at approximately 4:30 am, and left the detainees, including an unconscious Asaad, handcuffed with zip ties in an abandoned warehouse. Residents of the village reportedly rushed to the building to free the detainees, where they found Asaad unconscious, with zip ties still around his hands.
Asaad, who was unresponsive, was then evacuated to the local village clinic, where he was pronounced dead.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement that the cause of death was a heart attack, “caused most likely from the beating and aggravated by the long detention and then abandoning him handcuffed for several hours in a building…on a very cold night.”
Asaad’s family told Palestinian media that he suffered from pre-existing heart conditions, diabetes, and hypertension, and had previously had open-heart surgery.
Palestinian leaders condemned Israel for its actions, saying that the army was fully responsible for Asaad’s death. Palestinians took to social media to express their anger, and deemed Asaad a ‘martyr’. He was buried in Jiljilya on Wednesday in a martyr’s funeral procession.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland called for a “swift, thorough, & transparent investigation,” into Asaad’s death, and expressed his condolences for Asaad’s family on Twitter.
Tor Wennesland@TWennesland My deepest condolences to the family of Omar Asaad – the elderly #Palestine|ian man who died yesterday, Wednesday, in the context of an apparent arrest by #Israel|i security forces near Ramallah. I call for a swift, thorough & transparent investigation.12:16 PM · Jan 13, 2022
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Wednesday that the Biden administration had “been in touch with the government of Israel to seek clarification about this incident.”
Israeli media quoted the Israeli army as saying that the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division is “reviewing the incident.”