The day after the United States announced new sanctions against Israeli settlers, US media outlet Axios reported that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce sanctions against the Israel Defense Forces battalion in the coming days ( IDF) Netzah Yehuda for having committed crimes against human rights in the West Bank prior to the October 7 attack. Benjamin Netanyahu has published on the X social network that “the intention to impose a sanction on an IDF unit is the height of absurdity and low morale”.
If the sanctions are upheld, it would be the first time the US has punished an IDF unit, which would bar the battalion and its members from receiving any US military aid or training. In addition, he would not be able to benefit from the financial aid approved on Saturday by the House of Representatives in Washington.
The IDF unit’s addition to the US blacklist is a blow to an increasingly questionable Benjamin Netanyahu, with the UN and numerous governments questioning him over the slaughter in the strip, where already exceeded 34,100 Palestinian civilians killed.
Founded in 1999, the Netzah Yehuda Battalion emerged as a special unit made up solely of ultra-Orthodox men. Over time it has become the destination for radical settlers who have not been accepted into any other Israeli combat unit.
According to Israeli media outlet 972, in 2015 the Netzach Yehuda Battalion shot an apparently unarmed Palestinian during a protest in the West Bank. In late 2018 this battalion clashed with border police who were arresting Israeli settlers in an effort to free the suspects. Shortly after, they assaulted and tortured a father in front of his son, the two Palestinians arrested.
The US government began investigating this battalion in 2022 after it was involved in several incidents that ended with the death of Palestinian American civilian Omar Assad. The civilian was arrested by Netzah Yehuda soldiers at a checkpoint in his West Bank village late at night after he refused to be searched. The soldiers handcuffed him, gagged him and abandoned him. Hours later he was found dead.
The ultra ideological background of the soldiers, their frequent rejection of the legitimacy of the institutions, even disobeying the orders of the command, and their origin – very different from that of the rest of the members of the armed forces – have led them to be considered almost like a militia.
