Israeli leaders said they will fight against sanctions being imposed on any Israeli military units for alleged human rights abuses after media reports said Washington was planning its first sanctions against the country’s defence forces, Reuters reports.

The Netzah Yehuda battalion was set up in 1999 to accommodate the religious beliefs of ultra-Orthodox Jews and other religious nationalist recruits in the army.

The United States called for a criminal investigation after Netzah Yehuda soldiers were accused of being involved in the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian-American, Omar Assad, who died of a heart attack in 2022 after he was detained and was later found abandoned at a building site.

A Palestinian autopsy found Assad died from a stress-induced heart attack brought on by being manhandled. The case attracted unusual attention because of his dual nationality, his age, and a demand by the US State Department for an investigation into his death. The Israeli military said soldiers temporarily gagged him with a strip of cloth and cuffed his hands with a zip tie because of his refusal to cooperate.

Netzah Yehuda’s battalion commander was reprimanded and two officers were dismissed but Israeli military prosecutors decided against pursuing criminal charges because they said there was no link between the errors made by soldiers and Assad’s death.

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