US says Israeli army units violated human rights
By Tom Bateman
The US state department has found five units of the Israeli military responsible for gross violations of human rights in individual incidents, but says they will continue to receive US military backing.
All the incidents involved took place outside of Gaza before the current war.
Israel took corrective action in four units, giving “additional information” on the fifth, the department says.
This means all the units remain eligible for US military assistance.
Washington is Israel’s major military backer, supplying it with $3.8bn (£3bn) worth of weapons and defence systems per year.
The announcement is the first determination of its kind for any Israeli unit by the US government.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said five security forces units committed gross violations of human rights.
“Four of these units have effectively remediated these violations, which is what we expect partners to do,” he said.
