Human rights violation: US mulls sanction Israeli military unit

Washington: The United States might sanction an Israeli military unit after reports of human rights violations surfaced from the West Bank. An angry Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the likely move, calling it "'the height of absurdity", Agence France-Presse reported.

The fresh development came when media asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about reports that suggested that his department has recommended cuts in military aid to the said Israel unit over involvement in incident violent incidents in the West Bank, after which Blinken hinted at the move.

The alleged incidents happened before the deadly October 7 attacks Hamas committed inside Israeli territory in the south. Blinken told reporters that his department is probing the allegations under a law that prohibits the US from supplying military aid to foreign troops who violate human rights.

"I think it's fair to say that you'll see results very soon. I've made determinations; you can expect to see them in the days ahead," AFP quoted Blinken.

The State Department had directed US embassy staff in Israel to run a probe on alleged human rights abuses in the West Bank by Israel's ultra-Orthodox Netzach Yehuda battalion in 2022. The allegations that were ordered to probe then include the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian American of a heart attack while in detention.

An angry Netanyahu wrote on X late on Saturday, "In recent weeks, I have been working against the imposition of sanctions on Israeli citizens, including in my conversations with senior American government officials."

"At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF is the height of absurdity and a moral low. The government headed by me will act by all means against these moves," he wrote.