First, the US will reportedly impose sanctions on the Israeli military unit for alleged human rights abuses

Ben Sales

Israeli officials denounced reports that the United States plans to sanction an Israeli military unit for human rights abuses, a step the State Department has never taken before.

The report on the sanctions comes amid escalating violence in the West Bank. Last week, an Israeli teenager was killed in what authorities said was a terror attack, and deadly riots by settlers followed. In recent days, an Israeli military attack resulted in the deaths of 14 Palestinians and injuries to 10 Israeli soldiers.

On Sunday, the news site Axios reported that Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to announce sanctions against the Netzach Yehuda Battalion, which was created to integrate haredi Orthodox soldiers into the military. Soldiers in the unit have been arrested and imprisoned for a litany of abuses against Palestinians over the years, including torture and beatings.

The unit has faced condemnation within Israel. In 2022, because of his record of abuse, said Israel’s then Diaspora Minister called for its dissolution. The unit was then moved from the West Bank to the Golan Heights. After Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, it was deployed to Gaza.

In a message ahead of Passover, which begins Monday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the reported sanctions, which Axios said would ban the military unit from receiving any U.S. aid.

“I will vigorously defend the IDF, our army and our fighters,” he said. “If anyone thinks he can impose sanctions on any unit in the IDF, I will fight it with all my strength. Just as our soldiers are united in defending us on the battlefield, we are united in defending them in the diplomatic arena.”

Objections to the sanctions crossed political lines in Israel. In a message on social mediaBenny Gantz, a centrist former defense minister, called Netzach Yehuda an “inseparable part of the Israeli army” and said the Israeli judiciary “closely evaluates any claim of violation or deviation from IDF orders and code of conduct.”

The report also caused a stir in the United States. Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Donald Trump ally who has campaigned against anti-Semitism on campus in a series of high-profile hearings in the House of Representatives, also declined the report, saying that President Joe Biden and Blinken “are choosing to deliberately undermine Israel to appease the pro-Hamas faction of the Democratic Party. This is not acceptable.”

The reported sanctions would follow multiple rounds of sanctions against West Bank settlers accused of committing violence and those who have supported them. The Biden administration imposed the sanctions after growing frustrated with the Israeli government’s efforts to rein in settler violence.

The Netzach Yehuda controversy comes after a multi-day Israeli military assault on the Nur Shams Palestinian refugee camp in the northern West Bank. The raid killed fourteen Palestinians, all militants, the IDF said, while ten Israeli soldiers were injured.

The raid is the latest in a series of counter-IDF operations in the West Bank, where violence has increased since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas on October 7. Hundreds of Palestinians and more than ten Israelis, a mix of soldiers and civilians, were murdered in the West Bank during that period.

The past week has been particularly violent in the area. Following the discovery last week of the body of a 14-year-old Israeli, who Israeli authorities said was killed in a terror attack, Israeli settlers rioted in a Palestinian village; a Palestinian was killed during the riot. Clashes have continued in recent days.