US says Israeli army units violated human rights

The US State Department says five units of the Israeli military are responsible for gross violations of human rights in individual incidents, but the US will continue to send military backing. 

The State Department says 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.

The US is Israel’s biggest military backer, supplying it with $3.8bn (£3bn) worth of weapons and defence systems per year.

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.

“For a remaining unit, we continue to be in consultations and engagements with the government of Israel; they have submitted additional information as it pertains to that unit,” he added.

The department denies claims it backed down under political pressure by continuing military assistance to the unit despite being unable to say whether or not there had been any accountability in the case.

“We are engaging with them in a process, and we will make an ultimate decision when it comes to that unit when that process is complete,” said Mr Patel.

All the incidents are believed to have taken place in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem in recent years.