U.S. reviewing whether to restrict military aid to IDF unit accused of human rights abuses

Source: NBC News

April 26, 2024, 1:46 PM EDT


The Biden administration is reviewing whether to restrict aid to an Israeli military battalion after determining that it was one of three battalions credibly implicated in gross human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank prior to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, according to a letter obtained by NBC News.

Two of those Israel Defense Forces units will continue to receive U.S. military assistance after accountability measures by the Israeli government, but whether the third IDF unit will face restrictions of U.S. military aid is still under review, according to the letter.

Israeli officials have been pressing Washington in public and private not to impose the restrictions on the unit, fearing the unprecedented move would cast a shadow over its military as a whole. The U.S. has issued growing criticism of its ally's conduct in the Gaza Strip, while protests have mounted across American college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war.

A 1997 act known as the Leahy Law restricts U.S. assistance to any security force unit of a foreign country if the unit is found to have committed a "Gross Violation of Human Rights," but an exception can be made if the secretary of state determines effective steps are being taken to bring those in the unit responsible to justice. It is named after its primary sponsor, former Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who spent nearly half a century in the Senate.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-sanctions-idf-unit-netzah-yehuda-west-bank-human-rights-abuses-rcna149549