The US State Department said that it found five Israeli army units responsible for serious human rights violations, in incidents that occurred outside the Gaza Strip before the outbreak of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas last October.
State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters that four of the units effectively addressed the violations, while Israel provided additional information on the fifth unit, and the United States continues talks with the government.
The US State Department said that these four units taking “corrective measures” rules out the possibility of US sanctions being imposed on them.
Patel explained that consultations are continuing with the Israeli government regarding the fifth unit in question, which committed violations against Palestinians in the Israeli army.
The American official refused to identify these units or the sanctions that Israel imposed on them.
Press reports indicated accusations, especially against the “Netzah Yehuda” battalion, which is largely composed of ultra-Orthodox soldiers.
US law prohibits the government from granting funding or sending weapons to foreign security force units when there is credible information indicating their involvement in human rights violations.
For more than 6 months, the Israeli army has been waging a war against the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, which was devastated by the conflict, and on the Lebanese border, where bombing is exchanged with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah on an almost daily basis.
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