US found five Israeli military units responsible for gross violations of human rights

The United States has concluded that five Israeli military units committed serious human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank before the Hamas attack in October, the State Department said Monday.

Four of these units have taken remedial measures, State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters, with consultations under way with the Israeli government over the fifth unit.

“After a careful process, we found five Israeli units responsible for individual incidents of gross violations of human rights,” Patel said.

All of this behavior took place before the October 7 Hamas attack and it was not in Gaza, he added.

Patel declined to identify the units or say what measures the Israeli government had taken against them.

Press reports have identified a battalion called the Netzah Yehuda, composed mainly of ultra-Orthodox Jews, as being accused of abuses.

US law bars the government from funding or arming foreign security forces against which there are credible allegations of human rights abuses.

The United States provides military aid to its allies around the world, including Israel.

The Israeli army has been fighting the militant Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip for almost seven months and is trading fire almost every day with Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon. Both groups are backed by Iran.

Hamas’ October attack in Israel resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,488 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry.