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STORY: In 2022, Nazmiya Assad's husband died in the occupied West Bank.

She blames Israeli soldiers for her husband's death...

...and two years on, she's still hoping to see justice served against them.

"After they beat him and cuffed him and dragged him out of the car, cuffed him and covered his face, they threw him away from the street around 200 meters away from the street. It was on the 12th, it was really cold, the 12th of January, was really cold."

Assad says her husband had been coming home from a game of cards that night.

He died from a heart attack after being detained by members of the Israeli army's Netzah Yehuda unit.

He still had a plastic zip-tie around one wrist when he was found dead at a construction site early the next morning.

His death drew attention in the United States:

Omar Assad was a dual Palestinian-U.S. citizen - and had lived in the U.S. for 45 years.

The U.S. government called for a criminal investigation in 2022 and is now reported by Israeli media to be planning sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda unit over its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank - an unprecedented step by Israel's closest ally.

The Netzah Yehuda battalion was set up in 1999 to accommodate the religious beliefs of ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Israeli army, which has occupied the West Bank since seizing it in a 1967 war.

Following Assad's death - the battalion's commander was reprimanded and two officers were dismissed, but Israeli military prosecutors decided against pursuing criminal charges.

Soldiers had temporarily gagged Assad - who had a history of heart problems - because he refused to cooperate...

But a military medical official found it impossible to determine that his death was caused specifically by the soldiers' conduct.

Asked for comment on the account, the Israeli military said the Netzah Yehuda battalion operates with full commitment to international law and the Israel Defense Forces acts to address incidents that deviate from orders and the expected values of its soldiers.

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Muraweh Abdel Rahman - a fruit and vegetable trader - says he was there when Assad died.

The same group of soldiers had detained him too.

He says after the soldiers left - he ran to Assad's body.

"Omar, Omar - Omar did not respond, I felt here (pointing to his neck) there was no pulse, I felt his hand and he had no pulse."

He says he doesn't believe U.S. sanctions will have any impact.

Nazmiya Assad also expressed doubts that Washington would take meaningful steps against Israel.

"I hope they bring them to justice, but I don't think they will do anything, because they give them the freedom to do whatever they want. They kill many people without compassion - boys, men, women, the elderly - they have no mercy."