diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/index/engine/ReadOnlyEngine.java b/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/index/engine/ReadOnlyEngine.java
index dceb26bc33aa7..63b994968ce91 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/index/engine/ReadOnlyEngine.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/index/engine/ReadOnlyEngine.java
@@ -313,19 +313,16 @@ public boolean isThrottled() {
 
     @Override
     public IndexResult index(Index index) {
-        assert false : "this should not be called";
         throw new UnsupportedOperationException("indexing is not supported on a read-only engine");
     }
 
     @Override
     public DeleteResult delete(Delete delete) {
-        assert false : "this should not be called";
         throw new UnsupportedOperationException("deletes are not supported on a read-only engine");
     }
 
     @Override
     public NoOpResult noOp(NoOp noOp) {
-        assert false : "this should not be called";
         throw new UnsupportedOperationException("no-ops are not supported on a read-only engine");
     }
 
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/snapshots/RestoreService.java b/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/snapshots/RestoreService.java
index 60c01d0b04639..8bf1bfead155e 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/snapshots/RestoreService.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/opensearch/snapshots/RestoreService.java
@@ -1227,6 +1227,7 @@ private static IndexMetadata addSnapshotToIndexSettings(IndexMetadata metadata,
             .put(IndexSettings.SEARCHABLE_SNAPSHOT_ID_UUID.getKey(), snapshot.getSnapshotId().getUUID())
             .put(IndexSettings.SEARCHABLE_SNAPSHOT_ID_NAME.getKey(), snapshot.getSnapshotId().getName())
             .put(IndexSettings.SEARCHABLE_SNAPSHOT_INDEX_ID.getKey(), indexId.getId())
+            .put(IndexMetadata.APIBlock.READ_ONLY_ALLOW_DELETE.settingName(), true)
             .put(metadata.getSettings())
             .build();
         return IndexMetadata.builder(metadata).settings(newSettings).build();
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/index/engine/ReadOnlyEngineTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/index/engine/ReadOnlyEngineTests.java
index 7a3bd0ef6c302..30638be506861 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/index/engine/ReadOnlyEngineTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/opensearch/index/engine/ReadOnlyEngineTests.java
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@
 
 import org.apache.lucene.index.DirectoryReader;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader;
-import org.apache.lucene.tests.util.LuceneTestCase;
 import org.opensearch.Version;
 import org.opensearch.common.bytes.BytesArray;
 import org.opensearch.common.lucene.index.OpenSearchDirectoryReader;
@@ -218,9 +217,7 @@ public void testReadOnly() throws IOException {
             EngineConfig config = config(defaultSettings, store, createTempDir(), newMergePolicy(), null, null, globalCheckpoint::get);
             store.createEmpty(Version.CURRENT.luceneVersion);
             try (ReadOnlyEngine readOnlyEngine = new ReadOnlyEngine(config, null, new TranslogStats(), true, Function.identity(), true)) {
-                Class<? extends Throwable> expectedException = LuceneTestCase.TEST_ASSERTS_ENABLED
-                    ? AssertionError.class
-                    : UnsupportedOperationException.class;
+                Class<? extends Throwable> expectedException = UnsupportedOperationException.class;
                 expectThrows(expectedException, () -> readOnlyEngine.index(null));
                 expectThrows(expectedException, () -> readOnlyEngine.delete(null));
                 expectThrows(expectedException, () -> readOnlyEngine.noOp(null));