US to impose sanctions on “Israeli” army battalion

The US State Department is ready to sanction the “Netzah Yehuda” battalion within the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) for human rights abuses in the West Bank – three US sources with knowledge of the matter told Axios.

The sanctions, expected to be announced in a few days by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, would be the first time the United States has imposed sanctions on the ‘Israeli’ military.

The “Netzah Yehuda” battalion and its members will be barred from receiving US military aid or training – according to Axios.

The US began investigating the battalion, whose members are all ultra-Orthodox men, in late 2022 after committing multiple violations against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

One incident in January 2022 involved an 80-year-old man, Omar Asaad, where fighters from the “Netzah Yehuda” battalion handcuffed and gagged the man and left him on the ground to be found dead hours later.

“Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “sanctions should not be imposed on the Israeli army!” in a post on his official “X” account.

The decision to sanction an IOF unit is “the height of absurdity and a moral low point,” he added. “I have opposed the imposition of sanctions on Israeli citizens, including in my conversations with senior U.S. government officials.”

The sanctions follow an earlier US investigation in which Washington pressured Israeli occupation authorities over human rights abuses committed by its forces against Palestinians in the West Bank – threatening to invoke the “Leahy Law”.

The Leahy Act is a piece of legislation that prohibits the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance with impunity to foreign security forces that violate human rights.

The purpose of the Leahy Act, passed by Congress in 1997, is to prevent the United States from becoming involved in serious crimes committed by foreign forces it supports.

Hebrew media reported that Joe Biden’s administration had earlier in February demanded urgent answers from “Israeli” authorities over a series of incidents in which army units operating in the West Bank behaved in a manner contrary to the law.

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