US accuses Israeli military units of 'gross human rights violations' in stunning condemnation of troops during negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire deal

The U.S. has concluded that five Israeli Defense Forces units engaged in 'gross violations of human rights', in a scathing assessment while U.S. military support for Israel is under increasing scrutiny amid the war in Gaza.

The violations announced by the State Department Monday came before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack inside Israel.

The finding can trigger a suspension of aid to the units under a process known as the Leahy law. 

'After a careful process, we found five Israeli units responsible for individual incidents of gross violations of human rights,' State Department principal deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters Monday.

The State Department announced that five Israeli units were found to have committed 'gross violations of human rights'. Four of the units were found to 'have effectively remediated these violations'

'All of these were incidents much before October 7 and none took place in Gaza. Four of these units have effectively remediated these violations, which is what we expect partners to do,' he continued. 

'It is consistent with what we expect all countries whom we have a security relationship with. For a remaining unit, we continue to be in in consultations and engagements with the Government of Israel,' he said.

It provided 'additional information' and conversations continue, he said. 

Patel noted when pressed that the fifth unit could continue to receive U.S. aid, and that overall U.S. support for Israel would continue.

That came on a day when White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly called U.S. support for Israel 'iron-clad.'

State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel announced the violations

President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday amid tensions over Gaza despite 'iron-clad' U.S. support for Israel

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced new questions about campus protests, truce talks, and the findings about Israeli units

'When we're talking about the Leahy Law, what we are talking about our unit and component restrictions, when they are found in violation, it is not have bearing on the broader security relationship that we may have with a country, especially a country like Israel, in which we have a longstanding security relationship,' he said.

'The provision of bulk assistance that's gone back many, many years.'

The Leahy Law, named for former Sen. Patrick Leagy (D-Vt.), bars U.S. funding for a unit when there is 'credible information' connecting it to gross human rights violations.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in Saudi Arabia Monday negotiating on a potential Gaza cease fire, spoke about the matter with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Fox News reported. 

The human rights violations finding comes as Blinken publicly pressured Hamas to accept the latest potential truce in the works that would free hostages and pause Israel's operation in Gaza.

Jean-Pierre applied new pressure of her own Monday. 'The onus is indeed on Hamas. There is a deal on the table and they need to take it,' she said.

But she avoided taking a position on protest encampments at universities across the country, even as Columbia University prepared to act on an Administration deadline for members of a protest encampment to leave.

'Antisemitism is hate speech it is dangerous it is abhorrent,' she said.

'It is a painful moment – we get that,' she said, while adding that 'free expression has to be done within the law,' she said.

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has blasted the enforcement process against IDF units, which comes as U.S. officials have repeatedly called on Israel to take the health and welfare of civilians in Gaza into account amid its operations there.

'At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF is the height of absurdity and a moral low,' Netanyahu posted last week on X.

But Patel, in his comments on the matter, pointed to a 'remediation standard is is consistent and it is the same for all countries,' and is a way for a country to avoid the prohibition by taking actions against the offending unit.

'This unit has been acknowledged by the Israeli government to have engaged in conduct inconsistent with IDF rules and, as a result, was transferred from the West Bank to the Golan Heights in 2022,' Blinken wrote in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson. 

That could have been a reference to the The Netzah Yehuda battalion, CNN wrote in a report stating that the unit had those deployments in 2022. The units commander got a reprimand after the death of Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American who died in detention.