The United States threatens sanctions on the IDF “Netzach Yehuda” Battalion for “human rights violations in the West Bank” . It would be a historic first, the restrictive measures would prohibit the Israeli battalion and its members from receiving any type of US military assistance or training.
The Battalion in question was founded in 1999 and gradually grew to around a thousand soldiers, almost all of whom were 'haredim' religious. Now he is employed in the war in Gaza.
The hypothesis of sanctions is forcefully rejected by Tel Aviv: "The height of absurdity", thunders Benjamin Netanyahu, while Minister Benny Gantz intends to talk about it with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “A dangerous precedent that also sends the wrong message to our common enemies in times of war,” says Gantz.
On the military front, if there is relative calm with Iran, the raids on Gaza and the military operations in the West Bank do not stop. Authorities in the Gaza Strip report 22 deaths, including 18 minors, in an Israeli attack in Rafah, while the Palestinian agency Wafa reported 14 deaths near Tulkarem in clashes between armed men and the army. And, according to Al Jazeera, 180 bodies have so far been found in a mass grave near the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis two weeks after the withdrawal of the Israeli army.
“In the coming days we will increase military and political pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to free our hostages and achieve victory,” Netanyahu announces in a pre-Passover video message shared online. The operation could officially begin in Rafah, which in any case has been subject to heavy bombing for two days.
(Unioneonline/L)
