Part of the military aid package will go to Israeli military units accused of serious rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
As the brutal war in Gaza continues into its 10th month, with allegations of widespread Israeli military abuses in the Strip, the United States is giving Israel additional funds to spend on American-made weapons and military equipment. The State Department announced it would send $3.5 billion. occupied Palestinian territory.
A State Department spokesperson announced Friday that the State Department notified Congress on Thursday that the Biden administration intends to release billions of dollars worth of foreign military funding to Israel.
U.S. broadcast media first reported on the release of funds under the $14.5 billion supplemental funding bill for Israel passed by Congress in April. This supplemental budget is on top of the more than $3 billion in annual military aid that the United States provides to Israel.
Some of the new funding will go to Israeli military units accused of human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The State Department announced that it had decided to forego sanctions against the unit, the first-ever blocking of aid to the Israeli military, and that Israeli efforts to address “violations by this unit” had been “effectively remedied”. He said he was satisfied with that. .
The United States has not released the name of the unit, but it is believed to be Israel’s Netza Yehuda battalion, historically based in the occupied West Bank.
The battalion and some of its members have been implicated in abuses against Palestinian civilians, including the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian-American man after being taken into custody by the battalion in 2022.
Netza Yehuda was given the green light after an investigation released in April by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded that an Israeli military battalion had committed grave human rights violations against Palestinians. The decision was issued in response to the opening of an investigation under US law related to US military aid to foreign forces. As the Leahy method.
In response to protests from Republican lawmakers over abuses associated with the battalion, Mr. Blinken said he would allow continued aid to the unit to give Israel time to address wrongdoing.
News of Blinken’s reversal comes as criticism of Israel mounts amid the Gaza war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.
Israeli forces indiscriminately kill civilians, torture prisoners of war, and hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank with attacks on housing, hospitals, and school shelters. Palestinians have been accused of numerous human rights violations against Palestinians, including water deprivation. , food, medicine.
Most recently, 10 Israeli soldiers were accused of brutal gang rapes of Palestinian detainees in Israeli POW camps, which were captured on video.
