No announcement today on US blacklisting of Netzah Yehuda, but ‘stay tuned,’ Blinken says

Asked whether he’ll be announcing the US decision to blacklist the Netzah Yehuda battalion over alleged human rights abuses, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says an announcement will be made on the matter in the coming days, “so please stay tuned on that.”

The Biden administration had originally planned to announce today the decision to bar US military aid from being used to supply weapons to the IDF’s Nezah Yehuda battalion over alleged rights abuses against Palestinians, a US official told The Times of Israel.

The announcement was supposed to be made in parallel to the release of the State Department’s 2023 human rights report, which Blinken unveiled at a press conference early this afternoon.

But the US decided to hold off on making the announcement as it seeks to clarify its messaging over the decision amid significant Israeli pushback, the US official says.