The US is aiming to impose sanctions – for the first time – against a controversial unit of the Israeli army.

According to US news website Axios, citing three well-informed sources, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is expected to announce sanctions against Israel’s Netzah Yehuda (a unit also known as Nahal Haredi) in the coming days. armed forces (IDF) for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank.

The sanctions would bar members of the Netzah Yehuda order, made up of ultra-Orthodox Jews, from receiving military support or training from the US, according to the Axios report.

A US official said Blinken’s decision was based on incidents reported in the West Bank before the October 7 attack by Hamas.

According to the Times of Israel, the Netzah Yehuda Order has become synonymous with far-right extremism and violence against Palestinians. The Israeli army withdrew this unit from the West Bank in December 2022.

Angry reactions from Israel

The reaction of the Israeli government to the reports was furious.

“Sanctions should not be imposed against (a unit) of the IDF,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized in a post on the X platform (formerly Twitter), adding that his government will oppose such measures with every means at its disposal .

“At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terrorism, the intention to sanction an IDF unit is the height of absurdity and a moral lapse,” Netanyahu argued in the same X post.

For his part, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war council, argued that possible sanctions against an IDF unit would set a dangerous precedent and send the wrong message to “our common enemies” in wartime.