US sanctions against Israel are postponed

Published 27 April 2024 at 11.45

Foreign. The United States is considering imposing sanctions on several Israeli units accused of crimes against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the New York Times. But the unusual sanctions – which would have targeted an allied country – do not seem to be coming off, ABC reports.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Saturday called the sanctions plans “the height of absurdity and a moral low-water mark” and vowed to “act by all means” against the United States if the superpower took any such action.

After Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and detained in raids in the West Bank, raids that Israeli authorities describe as anti­terrorist operations against Hamas and other armed groups.

One of the military units expected to be sanctioned by the US is Netzah Yehuda, which has previously been accused of violence against Palestinians on the West Bank. The unit was formed by rabid ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and nationalists from the West Bank settler movement and gained attention in the United States after lynching an Arab with American citizenship in a raid in 2022.

After considering sanctions, the Biden administration has finally come forward that three military battalions within the Israel Defense Forces have committed “gross human rights violations” against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank but that they should continue to receive US support, as Israel says it is taking steps to address the problem, ABC said.