Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to reject any sanctions against the country’s army after the United States announced that it planned to cut aid to one unit, BGNES reported.
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I will fight this with all my might
“I will fight against this with all my might,” the Israeli prime minister said on Sunday.
Earlier, the Axios news site reported that the US would impose sanctions on Israel’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion over alleged human rights abuses in the occupied West Bank. Netzah Yehuda is a military unit made up of only ultra-Orthodox Jews and only men, and Axios recalls a case in which soldiers in the unit arrested an 80-year-old Palestinian man and left him tied up, and he later died. Sanctions against an Israeli military unit would be the first such decision by the US – it is expected to take place in the middle of the week. The sanctions will mean the unit in question will not be able to use American weapons and be part of American training programs.
The BBC reported that any step would be within the US ban on providing aid to foreign units proven to have been involved in wrongdoing. And in the case of the Israeli part, it is a question of violations that occurred before October 7, 2023, when “Hamas” attacked Israel in an unprecedented manner.
When asked last week about reports that US military aid to parts of the Israel Defense Forces could be cut over allegations of human rights abuses in the occupied West Bank, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said: “You can expect to see them in the next few days”. The question came amid reports that months earlier a special commission had recommended that Blinken freeze US military aid to a number of parts of the Israeli military because of human rights abuses.
The US has never stopped helping the IDF
Washington has never stopped aid to an IDF unit before. The Israeli military said Netzah Yehuda was acting in accordance with international law.
“Following the publication of sanctions against the battalion, the IDF is not aware of the matter,” the military said, quoted by Reuters. “The IDF is working and will continue to work to investigate any unusual event in a practical manner and in accordance with the law.”
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