Who are the Netzah Yehuda battalion? The IDF unit facing US sanctions accused of violations in West Bank

The Netzah Yehuda battalion was set up in 1999 to accommodate the religious beliefs of ultra-Orthodox Jews

FILE - Mourners carry the body of Omar Assad, during his funeral in the West Bank village of Jiljiliya (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Israeli leaders have said they will fight sanctions being imposed on any military units for alleged human rights abuses after media reports said Washington was planning its first sanctions against the country’s defence forces.

The United States will impose the sanctions on Israel’s Netzah Yehuda battalion over its treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, Israeli media reported.

The Netzah Yehuda battalion was set up in 1999 to accommodate the religious beliefs of ultra-Orthodox Jews and other religious nationalist recruits in the army.

The government created the battalion as a pathway for these groups to serve in the military by allowing them to maintain their religious practices, such as giving them time for prayers and study and limiting their interactions with women soldiers.

The United States called for a criminal investigation after Netzah Yehuda soldiers were accused of being involved in the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian-American, Omar Assad, who died of a heart attack in 2022 after he was detained and was later found abandoned at a building site.

A Palestinian autopsy found Assad died from a stress-induced heart attack brought on by being manhandled.

Netanyahu on Sunday called the possibility of sanctions on the unit ‘the peak of absurdity and a moral low’ (Maayan Toaf/Israel Gpo/ZUMA Pres)

The case attracted unusual attention because of his dual nationality, his age, and a demand by the US State Department for an investigation into his death.

The Israeli military said soldiers temporarily gagged him with a strip of cloth and cuffed his hands with a zip tie because of his refusal to cooperate.

Netzah Yehuda’s battalion commander was reprimanded and two officers were dismissed but Israeli military prosecutors decided against pursuing criminal charges because they said there was no link between the errors made by soldiers and Assad’s death.

The Military Advocate General said a military medical official found it impossible to determine that his death was caused specifically by the soldiers’ conduct, and that the soldiers could not have been aware of his medical condition.

There have been several other incidents in recent years, some captured on video, in which Netzah Yehuda soldiers were accused of, or charged with, abusing Palestinian detainees.

The battalion primarily operated in the West Bank before it was moved out of the territory in late 2022 after US criticism. The unit has recently been serving in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said he has made “determinations” regarding accusations that Israel violated a set of US laws that prohibit providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations of human rights.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (REUTERS)

The Leahy Laws, authored by then-Senator Patrick Leahy in the late 1990s, prohibit providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations of human rights and have not been brought to justice.

Blinken said an announcement could be made “very soon”.

Israeli leaders reacted angrily to reports of the sanctions.

Netanyahu on Sunday called the possibility of sanctions on the unit “the peak of absurdity and a moral low” at a time when Israeli forces are fighting a war in Gaza against Hamas. He said that his government would “act by all means” against any move.

Benny Gantz, a minister in the country’s war cabinet, spoke to Blinken on Sunday and requested that he “reconsider the prospective decision”.

The Israeli military said the Netzah Yehuda battalion is an active combat unit that operates according to the principles of international law.