Middle East Crisis: U.S. Won't Suspend Aid, for Now, to Israeli Unit Accused of Abuses

The Biden administration, which has been under pressure for its support of Israel's war in Gaza, will not withhold military aid from a troubled military unit accused of human rights violations in the West Bank, so long as Israel continues with steps to hold the members of the unit accountable.

In an undated letter, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told the House speaker, Mike Johnson, that the United States was working with Israel to address charges against the unit, the Netzah Yehuda battalion. Though the letter did not mention the battalion's name, a U.S. official confirmed that Mr. Blinken was referring to Netzah Yehuda, which has been investigated for crimes in the West Bank predating the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that set off the war in Gaza.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss delicate diplomacy, said that the Biden administration could still take action against Netzah Yehuda if it concludes that Israel has not taken sufficient steps to hold its members to account.

The letter, obtained by The New York Times, said the State Department had determined that Netzah Yehuda had committed "gross human rights violations" against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

U.S. officials had reached similar findings about two other Israeli military units and two civilian units, the letter said, but in those cases the Biden administration had decided not to withhold military aid because Israel was already acting to "bring to justice" culpable service members.

Mr. Blinken assured Mr. Johnson in the letter, reported earlier by ABC News, that the United States "will not delay the delivery of any U.S. assistance, and Israel will be able to receive the full amount appropriated by Congress."

Under federal statutes commonly known as the Leahy law, the U.S. government must deny aid to foreign military units found to have committed gross violations of human rights without accountability. The law allows for the targeting of individual units without cutting off entire foreign militaries.

It was not clear what practical effect any such move might have, given that funding of specific Israeli units is hard to track, and it is unclear whether the units mentioned in the letter receive American training or equipment.

Still, the news last week that U.S. officials were considering withholding aid from Israeli military units for abuses prompted a furious response from Israel and from Mr. Johnson, a strong supporter of the current Israeli government. Mr. Johnson said this week that he had called the White House in protest and had received an assurance in writing that none of the billions in additional U.S. aid to Israel approved by Congress this week would be affected.

The Biden administration has faced growing calls to restrict American aid to Israel over its military offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks in October. President Biden so far has declined to place conditions on U.S. aid over Israel's devastating tactics in the Gaza war, though he has taken several steps in response to violence by Israelis in the West Bank, including placing sanctions against several Israeli settlers for what the U.S. has called "extremist" acts of violence against Palestinians.

In his letter to the Republican House speaker, Mr. Blinken said that two Israeli battalions and "civilian authority units," none of which he named, had committed human rights abuses but that he had "determined that the Israeli government has conducted effective remediation of the units involved." He defined remediation as a process in which a foreign government takes "effective steps to bring to justice the responsible members of the unit."

In the case of Netzah Yehuda, which he did not cite by name, he said that "there has not been effective remediation to date" but that the Israeli government "has presented new information regarding the status of the unit, and we will engage on identifying a path to effective remediation for this unit."

Mr. Blinken is planning to travel to Israel next week for meetings with Israeli leaders to discuss efforts to free hostages from Gaza and an impending Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an Israeli official said on Friday. It was not immediately clear whether he would discuss Netzah Yehuda. Mr. Blinken has discussed the matter by phone with senior Israeli officials in recent days.

Under the terms of a 10-year security agreement that the United States and Israel reached in 2016, the United States must consult with Israeli officials before placing restrictions on security assistance. That consultation is ongoing, according to the U.S. official.

Netzah Yehuda, which was created to accommodate the religious practices of Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, has been repeatedly accused of mistreating Palestinians.

In January 2022, according to witnesses, its soldiers bound and gagged a 78-year-old Palestinian American who died of a heart attack while in military custody. An investigation concluded that the two soldiers who bound the man thought he was sleeping. The soldiers faced disciplinary action but no criminal charges were brought.

The unit was transferred in 2022 from the West Bank to the Golan Heights in northern Israel, according to Mr. Blinken's letter.

Mr. Blinken added that no other Israeli units had been found culpable of rights violations under the Leahy Law and that the administration's deliberations "will have no impact on our support for Israel's ability to defend itself against Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah or other threats."

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— Michael Crowley reporting from Washington

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Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will visit Israel next week, an Israeli official said on Friday, as talks on a cease-fire deal that would allow for the release of hostages held in Gaza appear stalled and tensions have risen between Israel and the United States over the war.

The Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of lack of authorization to speak publicly on the matter, said talks with Mr. Blinken would center on hostages and an impending Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Mr. Blinken last visited Israel in March, when he warned that its plans to invade Rafah, where more than a million displaced people are sheltering, would pose severe risks to civilians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with those plans, saying that such an operation is necessary to eliminate Hamas battalions in the city.

Still, the Biden administration has stuck by Israel as mediators have failed to broker even a temporary cease-fire in Gaza that would give Palestinians some respite and allow for the release of hostages abducted in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

The United States has proposed a deal through Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries in which Hamas would release 40 of the most vulnerable hostages in exchange for a six-week truce and the release of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. A senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity under official ground rules put the blame solely on Hamas for blocking the deal.

The official said that while Israel had signaled it would accept those terms, the response from Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader hiding underground in Gaza, had been "totally nonconstructive." Hamas has since signaled that it is not completely rejecting the deal and is willing to sit down again, the official said, adding that the United States and its partners would test that in coming days.

President Biden and the leaders of 17 other nations called on Hamas on Thursday to release all the hostages in a joint statement that appeared intended to send the message that the world is not entirely against Israel and that Hamas is the main impediment to ending the war.

Peter Baker contributed reporting from Washington.

— Patrick Kingsley reporting from Jerusalem

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An Israeli man was killed in an anti-tank missile attack from Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Friday, the latest in a growing string of civilian casualties on both sides of Israel's northern border as tit-for-tat strikes intensify with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the man had been carrying out "infrastructure work" when two anti-tank missiles were fired late Thursday into the area of Har Dov in northern Israel, a disputed sliver of land where Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet. Also known as the Shebaa Farms, the area is claimed by Lebanon but occupied by Israel, and has long been a crucible for violence.

Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful regional proxy, described the overnight attack as an "ambush," claiming that two vehicles had been destroyed in a combined missile, artillery and rocket assault on an Israeli military base in the area. The Israeli military statement did not say whether a base had been hit.

Kan, Israel's public broadcaster, identified the man killed as Sharif Suwayed, 35, and said that his truck had been hit while he was working to improve defenses at a military base, modifications that were being carried out at night to protect against Hezbollah attacks. The Israeli military was investigating, the broadcaster reported.

Israeli forces responded by striking Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon, among them a weapon storage facility and military compound, according to a military statement. Lebanese state media reported on Friday that multiple towns had been targeted by heavy Israeli bombardment, damaging dozens of houses. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, the heaviest between the sides in nearly two decades, has shown no sign of subsiding. Israeli strikes inside Lebanon have begun to creep deeper into the country's interior, though the hostilities for now have been confined largely to areas along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

In Israel, 19 soldiers and civilians have been killed in the recent violence, which began after Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel in support of the deadly Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7.

More than 70 civilians have been killed in Lebanon, along with roughly 270 Hezbollah fighters, the group has said, a figure that exceeds its losses in the 2006 war with Israel.

Yoav Gallant, Israel's defense minister, said this week that its strikes had eliminated half of Hezbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon, although experts expressed skepticism about that claim. They also have cast doubt on whether targeted killings of commanders could achieve Israel's goal of pushing Hezbollah farther from the border, reducing the threat of attacks and allowing the tens of thousands of Israeli civilians displaced by the fighting to return to their homes.

Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

— Euan Ward Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon

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A baby who was delivered through an emergency cesarean section after her mother was killed in an Israeli strike died on Thursday, a relative said, less than a week after news of her birth brought a glimmer of hope to war-torn Gaza.

The baby, who was born prematurely after a strike in southern Gaza that also killed her father and sister, suffered respiratory problems, and doctors were unable to save her, said her uncle, Rami al-Sheikh.

"I buried her in her father's grave," he said in a phone interview on Friday.

The mother, Sabreen al-Sakani, was killed along with her husband, Shukri, and their 3-year-old daughter, Malak, when an Israeli strike hit their home in the city of Rafah shortly before midnight last Saturday. Rescue crews took the bodies to the Emirati Hospital in Rafah, where doctors performed a cesarean section on Ms. al-Sakani, who was 30 weeks pregnant.

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The girls' uncle said that Malak had wanted to name her little sister Rouh, the Arabic word for soul. The extended family decided instead to name her after her mother, Sabreen.

Sabreen weighed just three pounds at birth, said Dr. Mohammed Salama, head of the neonatal intensive care unit at Emirati Hospital. Her birth was captured on video by a journalist from the Reuters news agency, who filmed doctors providing artificial respiration to her after she emerged, pale and limp, from her mother.

Instead of a name, doctors initially wrote, "The baby of the martyr Sabreen al-Sakani" on a piece of tape across her chest.

"The baby was delivered into a tragic situation," Dr. Salama told Reuters, adding, "Even if this baby survives, she was born an orphan."

— Hiba Yazbek Reporting from Jerusalem

A drone attack on a large gas field in Iraq's Kurdistan region killed four workers and plunged much of eastern Kurdistan into darkness because it relies on gas to fuel its electrical plants, according to a Kurdistan regional government spokesman.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. While Iranian-backed armed groups have bases in the area, there are many competing interests in Kurdistan, leaving it unclear whether the attacks are part of the larger regional fight between Iran and Israel, which has intensified during the war in Gaza.

The Kurdistan region's president, Nechirvan Barzani, condemned the attack and called on the government in Baghdad to investigate. "These attacks endanger the peace and stability of the country," Mr. Barzani said, adding, "The representatives of the Iraqi federal government must do their duty to prevent these attacks and find the perpetrators from any side and punish them according to the law."

Iraq's joint command in Baghdad issued a statement calling the attack "sabotage," confirming that a drone was used. The statement said Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani had ordered an investigation.

Friday's drone attack was the second so far this year on the Khor Mor field in Sulaymaniyah Province. The last one, in January, did not inflict casualties.

"Four Yemeni workers have been killed, and the field has been severely damaged, which will cause electricity shortages," said Peshawa Hawramani, a spokesman for the Kurdistan regional government.

Almost a million people in Sulaymaniyah Province were left without power, along with thousands more in adjacent provinces. It took about 24 hours to restore electricity after the last attack, but because the damage was greater this time, Kurdish authorities said it could take longer. While hospitals and security services have large generators, many ordinary residents have access only to limited power from shared generators.

Claims of responsibility were never made for previous attacks on the gas field, which is operated by Dana Gas, based in the United Arab Emirates, and a related company, Crescent Petroleum.

While the drone attack could stem from the regional conflict between Iran and Israel, there are other tensions in the region — between internal Iraqi factions and between Baghdad and Kurdistan. There has been a multiyear effort by the Iraqi federal government in Baghdad and the courts to reduce the Kurdistan region's control over its natural resources.

At the same time, there is tension between Iran and Iraq over any efforts by Iraq to expand domestic gas production. Iran sells about $4 billion of gas to Iraq each year because Iraq does not have enough gas to fuel its electricity plants. Kurdistan and the Iraqi government had been discussing expansion of the Khor Mor field.

Kamil Kakol contributed reporting from Sulaymaniyah Province, Iraq.

— Alissa J. Rubin Reporting from Baghdad

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Police Arrest Group of Rabbis and Activists Near Gaza

The Israeli police arrested rabbis and peace activists near the border with Gaza.

[singing] You can arrest us, but we're going to walk slowly, our way towards the crossing.

Seven rabbis and peace activists were arrested on Friday near the border with Gaza after they tried to take food supplies into the territory, according to two participants and the campaign group that organized the effort.

The detainees were among a group of roughly 30 rabbis and activists from Israel and the United States who were stopped by police officers as they tried to reach the Erez crossing, a major transit point between Israel and northern Gaza.

Organized by Rabbis for Ceasefire, a peace movement based in the United States, the effort was intended to build support for a truce and to highlight rising reports of starvation in Gaza. A global authority on food security, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, has predicted an imminent famine in northern Gaza, the area of the territory closest to Erez.

The protest was timed to coincide with the week of Passover, a Jewish festival that celebrates the biblical story of the liberation of Jews from slavery in ancient Egypt.

"We were making the point that Jewish liberation is bound up with Palestinian liberation, that we want freedom for all," said Toba Spitzer, a rabbi from Boston who attended the protest but was not arrested.

The group had tried to drive into Gaza with a pickup truck carrying half a ton of rice and flour but was stopped roughly a third of a mile from the border, Rabbi Spitzer said. The effort was largely symbolic and the organizers expected it to fail given the restrictions along the border; the supplies will now be donated to needy Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Rabbi Spitzer said.

The Israeli police did not respond to requests for comment.

The author Ayelet Waldman of Berkeley, Calif., was among those arrested, her husband, the author Michael Chabon, said on Instagram.

There are widespread food shortages in Gaza. Israeli restrictions on where convoys can enter the strip, Israeli bombardment and widespread damage to roads, the collapse of Gazan agriculture, and a breakdown in law and order have all made it harder to distribute aid safely.

Aid groups and United Nations officials have accused Israel of systematically limiting aid delivery. Israel denies the assertion, blaming the shortages on logistical failures by aid groups, and has recently increased the number of trucks entering the strip.

Israeli officials say that the Erez crossing, which was primarily used for pedestrian traffic before the war, is difficult to use for aid delivery because it lacks the right infrastructure and was also badly damaged during the Hamas-led raid on Israel in October.

A majority of Jewish Israelis oppose the delivery of more aid to Gaza, according to a poll conducted in February by the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based research group.

Israeli protesters regularly gather at another crossing point farther south, trying to block aid convoys entering Gaza.

— Patrick Kingsley and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad Reporting from Jerusalem and from Haifa, Israel

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Army engineers on Thursday began construction of a floating pier and causeway for humanitarian aid off the coast of Gaza, which, when completed, could help relief workers deliver as many as two million meals a day for the enclave's residents, Defense Department officials said.

The construction on the "initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea" means that the project's timing is in line with what Pentagon officials had predicted, Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Defense Department's press secretary, said. The construction is meant to allow humanitarian aid to bypass Israeli restrictions on land convoys into the besieged strip.

General Ryder said that defense officials expected the project, ordered up by President Biden early last month, to be completed early next month. The facility is meant to include an offshore platform to transfer aid from ships, and a floating pier to bring the aid to shore.

Aid organizations have welcomed the plan, which will be an addition to the airdrops of humanitarian supplies that the U.S. military has been conducting over Gaza. But aid workers say, and defense officials have acknowledged, that the maritime project is not an adequate substitute for land convoys. Such aid convoys fell sharply when the war began more than six months ago and have only partly recovered.

Some U.S. military officials have also privately expressed security concerns about the project, and General Ryder said that the military was looking into a mortar attack on Wednesday that caused minimal damage in the area where some pier work is supposed to be done. However, he said, U.S. forces had not started moving anything into the area at the time of the mortar attacks.

The floating pier is being built alongside an Army ship off the Gaza coast. Army ships are large, lumbering vessels, so they have armed escorts, particularly as they get within range of Gaza's coast, defense officials have said.

The United Nations says famine is likely to set in within Gaza by the end of May.

Aid workers have described bottlenecks for aid at border crossings because of lengthy inspections of trucks, limited crossing hours and protests by Israelis, and they have highlighted the difficulty of distributing aid inside Gaza. Israeli officials have denied that they are hampering the flow of aid, saying the United Nations and aid groups are responsible for any backlogs.

Senior Biden administration and military officials detailed a complex plan in a Pentagon call with reporters on Thursday afternoon, explaining how the pier and causeway are being put together, and how it is supposed to work. Army engineers are constructing the facility aboard Navy ships in the eastern Mediterranean. One official said that the "at-sea assembly of key pieces" of the pier began on Thursday.

Biden officials are insistent that the Pentagon can carry out aid deliveries through the floating pier without putting American boots on the ground in Gaza. Officials described a complicated shuttle system, through which aid would be loaded onto Navy ships in Cyprus and transported to a causeway — a floating platform — at sea.

The Pentagon's military acronym for the project is J-Lots, for Joint Logistics Over the Shore.

The causeway at sea is different from the floating pier where the aid will be offloaded into Gaza. An engineering unit with the Israeli military will anchor the floating pier to the Gaza shore, a senior military official told reporters in the Pentagon call.

Shuttle boats run by aid organizations, the United Nations or other countries are then expected to transport the aid to the floating pier, where it is to be loaded onto trucks driven by "a third party," the official said. He declined to identify the third party.

The official said that Israel was dedicating a brigade to provide security for the American troops and aid workers working on the pier.

The operation is expected to bring in enough aid for around 90 trucks a day, a number that will increase to 150 trucks a day when the system reaches full operating capacity, the official said.

— Helene Cooper Reporting from Washington