US poised to impose sanctions on IDF unit accused of West Bank abuses | Israel

An Israeli army unit is facing US sanctions over its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, while Congress voted to approve $26 billion in new emergency aid to Israel.

According to Israeli media reports, US State Department officials have confirmed that they are preparing to impose sanctions on the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion, which has been accused of serious human rights abuses against Palestinians.

This key move, which would mark the first time the US government would target an IDF unit, sparked immediate anger among Israeli political leaders who vowed to oppose it.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday that the US is considering similar action against other police and military units.

The sanctions, which would be imposed under the 1997 Leahy Act, would ban the transfer of U.S. military aid to the unit and prevent soldiers and officers from participating in training with the U.S. military or in programs that receive U.S. funding.

The reported plans were made public as Israeli attacks on the southern Gaza town of Rafah killed 18 people, including 14 children, on Saturday evening, according to Gaza health officials.

The news of possible sanctions against the Netzah Yehuda Battalion follows a statement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday that he had made “decisions” on claims that Israel had violated the Leahy Act, which would grant of military aid. to police or security units that commit gross violations of human rights.

Since the law took effect, U.S. aid has been blocked to hundreds of entities around the world accused of rights abuses.

The State Department has investigated a number of Israeli security units, including the police and army, for alleged violations, as senior Israeli officials said they had lobbied against the imposition of any sanctions.

The Netzah Yehuda Battalion, part of the Kfir Brigade, was originally established in 1999 to accommodate the religious beliefs of recruits from the ultra-Orthodox and national religious communities, including those from extremist settlements, and has traditionally been deployed mainly in the West Bank. .

Soldiers from the unit were blamed for the death of a 78-year-old U.S. citizen, Omar Assad, who died of a heart attack in 2022 after being held down, bound, gagged and then abandoned by members of the unit. It was one of a number of high-profile incidents involving torture and ill-treatment.

That case received attention from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which demanded a criminal investigation.

The unit was later transferred from the West Bank to northern Israel and has also been deployed in Gaza.

According to ProPublica, the State Department had received a file on violations of the Leahy Act last week in December.

Reports that an IDF battalion is facing threatened sanctions prompted a sharp response from senior Israeli figures, including the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The IDF should not be punished!” he wrote about

“At a time when our soldiers are fighting terrorist monsters, the intention to issue sanctions against a unit in the IDF is the height of absurdity and a moral low point,” he added, pledging to fight the move, although it was not clear how.

“The Netza Yehuda Battalion is an inseparable part of the Israeli army,” added Benny Gantz, a senior member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet and former IDF chief of staff.

“It is subject to military law and is responsible for operating in full compliance with international law. The State of Israel has a strong, independent judicial system that and will continue to rigorously evaluate any claim of violation or deviation from IDF orders and code of conduct.”

However, human rights groups have long argued that the IDF’s military investigation system fails to properly investigate and prosecute human rights abuses by soldiers.

The reported plan to impose sanctions on the unit came to light amid an increasing international sanctions campaign against Israelis involved in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, leading to new announcements targeting individuals and organizations on an almost monthly basis.

On Friday, the US and EU separately announced new sanctions against far-right Israeli groups and NGOs linked to settler violence, as well as high-profile individuals including Bentzi Gopstein, who has been a close political ally of Israel’s far-right minister of national security. , Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The complex and contradictory international choreography of aid and sanctions related to Israel, which became strikingly clear this weekend and during Iran’s attack on Israel a week ago, seems designed to demonstrate that while its allies will support Israel’s defense, they are determined to punish Israel. escalating extremist violence in the West Bank.

In particular, the Biden administration appears more comfortable condemning Israel’s policy of action in the West Bank than in Gaza, where Israel is fighting Hamas in a six-month conflict that has killed more than 85% of the coastal strip’s population. has displaced and killed 34,000 Palestinians. of them citizens.

The latest incident, which Gaza health officials said claimed the lives of 14 children, came in the form of a pair of airstrikes on the southern city of Rafah, which is bombed by Israel almost daily.

The Kuwaiti hospital, which received the bodies, said the first attack killed a man, his wife and their three-year-old child. The woman was pregnant and doctors managed to save the baby, the hospital said.

According to hospital records, the second strike killed thirteen children and two women, all from the same family. An airstrike in Rafah the night before killed nine people, including six children.