While the Biden administration has determined “gross human rights violations” were committed by Israel Defense Forces against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the report, the relevant battalions will remain eligible for US military aid.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shared the assessment in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, ABC reports, in which he wrote that the position “will not delay the delivery of any US assistance and Israel will be able to receive the full amount appropriated by Congress.”
Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden signed into law a $95 billion war aid measure that includes assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
The legislation will send $17 billion in wartime assistance to Israel and $9 billion in humanitarian relief to citizens of Gaza and other war-torn regions — with Biden specifying at a White House event to announce the signing on Wednesday that the package “includes $1 billion for additional humanitarian aid in Gaza.”
The ABC report notes that allegations of rights abuses by IDF units took place before war erupted in Gaza on October 7, sparked by Hamas’s massacre in southern Israel.
It also notes that none of the cases involve “operations against Hamas in Gaza or against Iran or its proxies.”
Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, held separate talks with Blinken this week in an effort to prevent Washington from going ahead with the reported plans to slap sanctions on Netzah Yehuda, a Kfir infantry brigade unit designed for religious troops.
