The US expected to block aid to the Israeli military unit

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel expects its key ally, the United States, to announce it is blocking military aid to an Israeli army unit over gross human rights abuses in the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the war in Gaza began six months ago.

The move would mark the first time in the two countries’ decades-long partnership that a U.S. administration has invoked a 27-year-old congressional law known as the Leahy Act against an Israeli military unit.

It comes at a time when the US-Israeli relationship is increasingly strained by civilian deaths and suffering in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.