US says it is reviewing new information about Israeli unit accused of abuses before war in Gaza

Washington: The US has determined that an Israeli military unit committed gross human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank before the war in Gaza began, but will hold off on any decision about aid to the battalion while it continues. Will review new information provided. Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The undated letter obtained by The Associated Press on Friday appears to postpone a decision on whether to impose the first freeze on U.S. aid to an Israeli military unit over its treatment of Palestinians. Israeli leaders have angrily protested against any such aid restrictions in anticipation of a US decision this week.

Blinken emphasized that overall US military support for the defense of Israel against Hamas and other threats will not be affected by the State Department’s final decision on a unit. Johnson played a key role this week in pushing White House-backed legislation providing $26 billion in additional funding for Israel’s defense and relief from the growing humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

The US declaration concerns an Israeli unit and its actions against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank before Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza began in October. Although Blinken’s letter did not identify the entity, it is believed to be Netzah Yehuda, based in the historically Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The unit and some of its members have been linked to abuses against civilians in the Palestinian Territory, including the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian American man after being detained by the battalion’s forces in 2022.

The Israeli military announced in 2022 that the unit was being redeployed to the Golan Heights, near the Syrian and Lebanese borders. Recently, its troops were transported to Gaza to fight in the war against Hamas.

Blinken said the Israeli government has not yet adequately addressed abuses by the military unit. But “the Israeli government has presented new information regarding the condition of the unit and we will continue to engage in identifying effective treatment pathways for this unit,” he wrote.

A 1997 act known as the Leahy Act requires the United States to end military aid to a foreign military entity it deems to be in serious violation of international law or human rights. But the law allows immunity if the military has held perpetrators accountable and worked to improve the unit.

The Lehi Law has never been enforced against close ally Israel.

After a State Department review, Blinken wrote to Johnson, he had determined that two Israeli Defense Forces units and several civilian authority units were involved in significant rights abuses. But they also found that all but one of those two Israeli military units and all civilian units had taken appropriate and effective measures.

The reviews come as protests and backlash over U.S. military aid for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza are stirring unrest on American college campuses as well as election-year politics at home and relations abroad. .

Although the amount of money at stake is relatively small, isolating the unit would be embarrassing for Israel, whose leaders often call the army “the most moral army in the world.”

The US and Israeli militaries have close relations, regularly training together and sharing intelligence. This would amount to another sharp US rebuke of Israel’s policies in the West Bank. The Biden administration has become increasingly vocal in its criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and recently imposed sanctions on several radical residents for violence against Palestinians.

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Li contributed from Beijing. Joseph Federman contributed from Jerusalem.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – The Associated Press)