Although the news claims that a battalion named Netzah Yehuda, which is primarily made up of ultra-Orthodox Jews, is one among the military groups that have perpetrated significant crimes against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Washington refuses to name the troops.
The US has determined that five Israeli military units seriously violated Palestinians’ human rights in the occupied West Bank far in advance of the October 7 Hamas raid, despite the US continuing to arm and defend Israel at the UN.
According to State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel on Monday, four of these units have implemented corrective actions, and discussions regarding the fifth unit are currently underway with the Israeli government.
“After a careful process, we found five Israeli units responsible for individual incidents of gross violations of human rights,” the State Department stated.
He pointed out that none of similar behavior occurred in Gaza and that it all occurred before to the October 7 Hamas offensive.
Patel opted not to disclose the units’ identities or the actions taken by the Israeli government against them.
According to press accounts, one battalion, the Netzah Yehuda, has a long history of misbehavior and is accused of atrocities. This battalion is said to have been influenced by an ideology deeply embedded in settler-colonialism.
According to US law, the government is not allowed to arm or finance foreign security forces that are the target of valid complaints of violations of human rights.
The United States provides Israel with the majority of its financial and military support, providing its partner with an annual military allowance of $3.8 billion.
Since the start of the conflict with Israel last year, it has stated that it fully supports Israel. The US never stops arming Israel, even in the face of rising civilian casualties in Gaza.
Genocide within Gaza’s borders?
The Palestinian resistance group Hamas claims that their surprise attack on Israel on October 7 was planned in response to Israeli attacks on the Al Aqsa Mosque, violence by illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank, and a desire to get the Palestine subject “back on the table.”
Hamas terrorists launched an astonishingly wide-ranging attack, encroaching on up to 22 non-Gaza areas, including towns and other settlements up to 24 kilometers away from the border.
As Israel’s forces scrambled to stage a counterattack, they are said to have confronted a large number of soldiers in multiple regions, killing about 1140 Israelis, hundreds of them soldiers.
About 240 prisoners were also taken to Gaza by Hamas forces. Afterwards, several of them were traded for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons. There are currently 130 prisoners held in Gaza, 34 of whom the Israeli army claims are deceased, some of them as a result of random Israeli assaults.
Since October of last year, Israel has been relentlessly bombarding Gaza from the air, land, and sea. As a result, over 77,600 Palestinians have been wounded, over 34,400 Palestinians—mostly women and children—have been killed, and over 2.3 million people have been forced to flee the small coastal enclave.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is expected to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and senior military officials for their roles in the Gaza slaughter, according to various media reports. The International Court of Justice has already determined that there is a reasonable possibility that Israel violated the Genocide Convention.
According to Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the state of human rights in the Palestinian territories, there are good reasons to think that Israel has massacred Palestinians in Gaza.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
