Five Israeli security forces violated human rights prior to Gaza War – US

The US government has found that five Israeli security groups did very wrong things to people before the war with Hamas in Gaza started. They are thinking about stopping giving weapons and help to one of the groups because of this.

The other four have fixed these violations, said Vedant Patel, who works for the State Department. He did not say how they fixed the problems.

The US hasn’t made a decision yet about giving military help to the last group, which is said to be the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion. The battalion was involved in the death of a Palestinian American man in January 2022.

“We are talking with the Israeli government. ” They have given more information about that unit, and we are still talking about it, Patel said.

Patel mentioned that all these events happened before October 7 and none of them happened in Gaza.

A person who knows about the situation said that the Israelis have recently told the US about things they did that they hadn’t mentioned before. The US is looking at these actions to decide if they are enough to stop cutting aid.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson and said that three units are from the Israel Defense Forces and two are civilian units. He also said that the abuses happened in the West Bank.

The Biden administration is being criticized for giving in to pressure from the Israeli government to not take action against a certain group. Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, strongly disagreed with the reports of possible action by the US.

“Netanyahu said last week that it’s very wrong to punish a unit in the IDF while our soldiers are fighting terrorists. ”

“I will make sure the government takes strong action against these actions,” he said.

Patel said on Monday that he doesn’t believe Israel is getting special treatment by being given more time to provide information before facing punishment.

“I didn’t say anything that goes against the Leahy process,” he said.

According to the Leahy Law, the US cannot help foreign security units that are involved in human rights abuses. However, they can resume assistance if the Secretary of State confirms that the country’s government is taking action to hold the guilty members of the security forces accountable.

Blinken wrote a letter to Johnson saying that one of the IDF units has not fixed their problems yet.

“The Israeli government recognized that this unit did not follow the rules of the IDF. As a result, they were moved from the West Bank to the Golan Heights in 2022,” Blinken wrote, without saying which unit it was.

In 2022, the Netzah Yehuda battalion moved from the West Bank to the Golan Heights. In January 2022, the leader of the group got in trouble because a 78-year-old person, Omar Assad, who was Palestinian American, died of a heart problem after being arrested and tied up. This information comes from the IDF. No soldiers were charged with a crime for Assad’s death.

Blinken wrote in the letter that the Israeli government has given new information about the unit’s status and they will work to find a way to fix the problem.

Patel didn’t say when the US got the new information. A source said that the Israelis told the US about things they did recently that they hadn’t talked about before. The US is now checking if those things are enough to stop aid from being limited.

Patel also did not explain exactly how they will fix the problem.

“The rule is that these countries must take strong action to make sure the responsible person is punished. ” “It varies from country to country,” he said during a press meeting.