An 80-year-old Palestinian-American man was martyred on Wednesday as a result of a brutal assault by the Israeli occupation forces north of Ramallah, Palestine.

On Thursday, the US State Department stated that Omar Abdul Majeed Asaad was a US citizen and that it had sought clarification from “Israel” over the incident. 

"We support a thorough investigation into the circumstances," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters. 

According to his brother, Asaad was a former Milwaukee, Wisconsin, resident who had lived in the United States for decades before returning to the occupied West Bank ten years ago.

The State Department, he said, had expressed condolences to the family and offered consular assistance.

A cold-blooded murder 

The attack was heinous, as 80-year-old Omar Abdul Majeed Asaad was blindfolded, beaten and assaulted, before being left lying on the ground in an under-construction building until he passed away, Palestinian officials and relatives reported on Wednesday.

Asaad's body was discovered in Jiljilya in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with a black plastic zip-tie still brutally wrapped around one wrist.

Such inhumane crimes are being committed on daily basis against Palestinians by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF).

The head of the municipal council in the village of Jiljilya, Fouad Fattoum, said on Wednesday that Asaad was driving home from visiting relatives when Israeli occupation forces arrested him, beaten him, blindfolded him, and left him to die in a still-under-construction building.

The residents noticed that someone on the ground rushed towards him after seeing him lifeless on the ground, and rushed him to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah for treatment.

Tragically, Assad arrived a dead body to the hospital.