Unprecedented As U.S Expected To Sanction IDF Unit for HR Violations in West Bank, Report Says

Washington: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to within days announce sanctions against the Israel Defense Forces “Netzah Yehuda” battalion for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, said a report.

It would be the first time the U.S. imposing sanctions on an Israeli military unit.

The sanctions will ban the battalion and its members from receiving any kind of U.S. military assistance or training.

A 1997 law authored by then-Senator Patrick Leahy prohibits U.S. foreign aid and Defense Department training programs from going to foreign security, military and police units credibly alleged to have committed human rights violations.

A U.S. official has been quoted by the report as saying that Blinken’s determination about the Netzah Yehuda unit is based on incidents that occurred before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and all took place in the West Bank.

Several other IDF and police units that were investigated won’t be sanctioned after they ‘remedied their behavior’, the report said.

Notably, the Netzah Yehuda battalion was formed as a special unit for ultra-orthodox soldiers. All of its members are men.

Over the years, the unit stationed in the West Bank became a destination for many “Hilltop Youth” — young radical right wing settlers who weren’t accepted into any other combat unit in the IDF.