The U.S. government has cleared foreign military assistance for an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit that was implicated in the 2022 death of a Palestinian American man.
U.S. assistance can flow to the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion, following a multi-month review process, State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel confirmed at an Aug. 12 press briefing.
By late April, the State Department announced that it had concluded that five Israeli units were responsible for past “gross violations of human rights,” although four of those units had already taken sufficient remedial steps.
The State Department said it was taking more time to review the Israeli government’s efforts to remediate the fifth unit, the Netzah Yehuda battalion.
Addressing reporters on Aug. 12, Patel said the review process for the Netzah Yehuda battalion has continued since April, and “after thoroughly reviewing that information, we’ve determined that violations by this unit have been effectively remediated.”
The Israeli military established its Netzah Yehuda battalion in 1999 as a specialized unit to accommodate the religious strictures of members of the Haredi Jewish community.
In that time, the Israeli military unit and some of its members have been linked to abuses of civilians.
Several Netzah Yehuda soldiers detained a 78-year-old Palestinian American man named Omar Assad, at a checkpoint near the West Bank community of Jiljilya on Jan. 12, 2022.
Assad experienced cardiac arrest and died at some point after being detained by the Israeli soldiers, fueling allegations of abuse by his Israeli captors.
It acknowledged that its soldiers bound and gagged Assad and took him to the courtyard of a nearby building along with other Palestinians.
Members of Netzah Yehuda held those detainees for about an hour before removing their restraints.
The defense force concluded the Netzah Yehuda soldiers believed that Assad was asleep as they untied him and left him there without attempting to wake him.
It stated only hours later that the Netzah Yehuda soldiers noticed that Assad had died.
In its statement, the IDF concluded the Netzah Yehuda soldiers hadn’t used any violence against Assad apart from when they initially detained him.
Still, the Israeli military concluded that the soldiers involved in the incident “failed in their obligations by leaving Assad lying on the floor without the required treatment and without reporting the incident back to their commanders.”
It stated that it reprimanded the commanders of the company and platoon involved in Assad’s death and barred them from serving in command roles for two years.
On Aug. 12, Patel confirmed that two Netzah Yehuda soldiers have left the unit and are no longer eligible to serve in the Israeli military’s reserve component. He also said the battalion has enhanced its prerecruitment screening process and has conducted a two-week seminar addressing the battalion’s past conduct.
When asked whether Netzah Yehuda soldiers should be prosecuted in connection with Assad’s death and other abuse allegations, Patel replied, “That’s not for the United States to speak to; that’s a question for the Israeli justice system.”
IDF officials didn’t respond by publication time to a request by The Epoch Times for further comment.
