[IMPORTANT] Hamas launches foot assault against settlements.

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The Biden administration has determined that three military battalions with the Israel Defense Forces committed "gross human rights violations" against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank but will remain eligible for U.S. military aid regardless because of steps Israel says it's taking to address the problem, ABC News has learned.

The administration assessment, which has not yet been made public, was outlined in an undated letter by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to House Speaker Mike Johnson obtained by ABC News.

The U.S. determination "will not delay the delivery of any U.S. assistance and Israel will be able to receive the full amount appropriated by Congress," Blinken wrote.

The allegations involving each of the units occurred before the Oct. 7 war began when Hamas attacked Israel. None of the cases involves operations against Hamas in Gaza or against Iran or its proxies.

Still, the decision is likely to roil critics of the Biden administration who say not enough is being done to hold Israel accountable for military operations in Gaza that have pushed the civilian population toward famine.

Administration officials counter that its process in reviewing human rights violations has been fair and that Israel was not given preferential treatment. They also note that it's not uncommon for the U.S. to work with countries through a process known as "remediation" that can encourage foreign countries to weed out bad actors within their militaries.

"Each of these situations is different, and we have to do our best to collect the facts and follow the facts and that's what we're doing," Blinken told reporters Monday at a press briefing when pressed for details on the U.S. review.

Under a federal measure known as the Leahy Law, the U.S. military is required to withhold weapons, training and other military assistance to any foreign military unit that commits gross human rights abuses.

The law, however, allows an exception for countries that have taken steps "to bring to justice the responsible members of the unit," according to Blinken's letter.

According to a person familiar with the process, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that hasn't been made public, the U.S. and Israel also have a special agreement that requires the U.S. to consult with the Israelis before making any decisions related to the Foreign Assistance Act. The person said those consultations remain ongoing.

Israel also has "acknowledged" that another IDF battalion had engaged in "conduct inconsistent" with Israel's rules. As a result, the unit was transferred from the West Bank to the Golan Heights in 2022, Blinken noted.

That description matches the Netzah Yehuda battalion, established for ultra-orthodox Jewish men.

"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," Blinken wrote.

"But this will have no impact on our support for Israel's ability to defend itself against Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, or other threats," he assured Johnson, a staunch supporter of Israel who helped push a foreign aid bill through Congress this week.

Blinken noted that no other units were found in violation of the Leahy Law.

The Israeli army is broadcasting recordings of women screaming and babies crying to lure Palestinians out into the streets in Gaza and kill them, a rights monitor has reported.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based group, said the technique was being used to intimidate and target Palestinian civilians in the central Gaza Strip's Nuseirat refugee camp, which is currently under assault by Israel.

Testimonies from residents who spoke to the team confirmed hearing sounds of crying and screams broadcast late at night on Sunday and Monday.

When the residents went out to investigate and try to help they were targeted by Israeli quadcopter drones and gunfire, the report said.

The alarming technique was used with the intent of luring the camp’s residents out into the streets, where they could be more easily targeted by Israeli snipers, Euro-Med said.

Maha Hussaini, the strategy director for Euro-Med in Gaza, told The New Arab that some of the sounds are often broadcast late at night when the streets are empty.

"This technique and noise is primarily used to bring people out to target them, because at night no one is out, especially following the random attacks and bombings on the Nuseirat Camp," she said.

"The Israeli forces find no one to target, so has resorted to this trick to deceive people. In the past few days, a number of people have been wounded because of this technique, around seven people, some of them were targeted in the head as they went to see where the sound was coming from."

Euro-Med also found that the tactic involved broadcasting the sound of gunshots, armed conflicts, explosions, military vehicle movements and at times, even songs in Hebrew and Arabic, in a bid to psychologically intimidate civilians who live in total darkness.

A 20-year-old resident of a displacement camp in Gaza, who requested to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, told the organisation they left their camp after hearing the sounds.

"We heard the voices of girls and women screaming: 'Come, help me, I am injured!' We went out to find out what was happening. No women were found, but we were directly targeted by a quadcopter drone," they said.

"I fled inside, and two people right in front of me were seriously injured. Because of the ongoing gunfire, we were unable to treat them, so we called an ambulance and they arrived to transport them."

Another 60-year-old woman said she heard the sound of loud gunfire and then the cries of women, which continued for 10 to 15 minutes.

"Given the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, Euro-Med Monitor warns of the dangers posed by the Israeli army’s immoral and inhumane tactics against the civilian population there," the organisation said in a statement.

Al Jazeera's Gaza correspondent, Anas al-Sharif, also reported that Israel was using drones to broadcast sounds of children crying in the central Gaza Strip.

In a voice recording published on Tuesday, the repeated sounds of babies crying, with short pauses in between, could be heard. The New Arab could not independently verify the audio.

At least 33,800 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of its relentless war on 7 October, with most of the victims being women and children. At least 76,000 Palestinians have since been wounded.

Human Rights Watch said in January that Palestinian civilians were being targeted, attacked, abused and killed over the past year, at a scale unprecedented in recent history.

"Israeli authorities' repression of Palestinians, undertaken as part of a policy to maintain the domination of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians, amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution," the group said in a statement.

An NBC News investigation into seven deadly airstrikes has found Palestinians were killed in areas of southern Gaza that the Israeli military had explicitly designated as safe zones.

The attacks took place from January to April, as Israel’s military bombarded Rafah from the air and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government signaled its intent to launch a full-scale ground invasion on Gaza’s southernmost city, which has now swelled to more than 1 million people.

NBC News camera crews filmed the bloody aftermath of the six strikes on Rafah itself and one strike farther north on the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone, which was also designated safe by Israel.

The crews compiled the GPS coordinates of each strike, all of which hit an area identified by the Israeli military as an evacuation zone in an online interactive map it published on Dec. 1. The map has not been updated since then and the Israel Defense Forces told NBC News in a statement Sunday that it remained accurate.

International aid agencies and Gazans have called the map confusing and difficult to read. Regular cellular and internet blackouts since the start of the war would also have made it difficult for civilians to access it.

Sari Bashi, Human Rights Watch’s program director, said in an interview that the incidents highlighted in NBC News’ investigation are not isolated.“People are fleeing to roads that the government told them to use to places where the Israeli government told them to go,” said Bashi, who has tracked the humanitarian impact of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. “And when they go there, they get killed.”

On Dec. 18, the IDF dropped leaflets that identified Rafah’s Tal Al Sultan and Al Zuhur neighborhoods, as well as Al Shaboura, home to a large refugee camp, as safe, and told residents to go there. NBC News found that all three locations have been hit by airstrikes since then.

NBC News found that Rafah’s Tal Al Sultan neighborhood, which was designated safe in leaflets dropped by the IDF on Dec. 18, was targeted less than a month later, on Jan. 9. Relatives said that 15 people died in a strike on the Nofal family home. “Many of my cousins were killed,” one of the survivors, Ahmed Younis, told an NBC News crew in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Younis added that he had moved to the house believing it was safe “but there is no safe area. The house fell on our heads.”

A little over a month later, a Feb. 12, a strike hit the Al Shaboura refugee camp, which had also been listed as a safe zone on an IDF leaflet. An NBC News crew filmed dozens of dead bodies, some women and children, in the aftermath of the strike, one of several in Rafah that night.

A building in Al Shaboura was also leveled by an air attack on April 20. Among the dead was Sabreen Sakani — who was 30 weeks pregnant at the time. Her baby, Sabreen Alrouh Joudeh, was born an orphan after doctors were able to perform a posthumous cesarean section and rescue her from her mother’s lifeless body.

NBC News’ cameras captured the moment doctors revived the newborn. Her short life ended Thursday when she died after struggling with respiratory problems.

Areas that senior Israeli officials publicly stated were safe were bombed as well. On Nov. 4, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told a news briefing in Tel Aviv that there would be no attacks on Al-Mawasi, a narrow strip of beachside land in the city of Khan Younis, promising that “anyone will be in a safe place” in that location. After Jan. 1, the IDF advised people on X to evacuate to Al-Mawasi 11 times.But Israeli forces repeatedly launched strikes on the area. On Jan. 4, 14 people died, among them three children who perished when their tent was hit by a strike, Palestinian officials said. Footage taken by an NBC News crew less than an hour later showed a large crater.

“If Al-Mawasi is not safe, where should we go? No one is protecting us,” said Kamal Saleh, who witnessed the strike that killed 14 people in total.

NBC News sent the IDF the GPS coordinates for the seven strikes it identified in safe zones. The IDF replied in an email that it was “not aware of any strike at the provided coordinates and times,” for a March 26 strike on the Tal Al Zuhur neighborhood. It did not respond when asked about the six additional coordinates.

The IDF also blamed Hamas for telling people to ignore its directives to move. It said in a follow-up email that it would “act against Hamas wherever it operates, with full commitment to international law, while distinguishing between terrorists and civilians.”

Bashi, of Human Rights Watch, said that Palestinians have tried to follow the Israeli instructions. “People evacuate, people use the roads they were told to use, they go to the place they were told to go and then they get hit by an airstrike or by a ground force invasion,” she said.

“There is nowhere safe in Gaza,” she added.

The IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi briefed the ministers on IDF operations in Gaza during a security cabinet meeting, and updated that hundreds of terrorists surrendered and were arrested, Israeli media reported on Saturday.

Responding to Halevi’s comment regarding the number of arrests, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir asked, "Are you saying everyone is raising their arms? What should we do with so many prisoners? It's dangerous for soldiers."

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter replied to the National Security minister’s question, saying, "I'm listening to you and not sure if you're a minister in Israel or of another country."

The IDF Chief of Staff responded to Ben-Gvir, stating, "Dangerous for whom? Those who surrender - we don't shoot. Those who fight us, we shoot. There's no dilemma. We arrest those who raise their hands."

Operating in Gaza
On April 1, the IDF withdrew from Shifa Hospital in Gaza, following an operation in which more than 200 senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad members were arrested, a Maariv report noted. Furthermore, during the operation at the hospital, IDF reconnaissance forces found combat equipment hidden in pillows and patient beds.

Hamas has published a video showing the first proof of life of two more hostages being held in Gaza.

In undated footage filmed under duress, Omri Miran says he has been held for 202 days and Keith Siegel mentions this week's Passover holiday, indicating the clips were filmed recently.

Responding to the video, their families said they would keep fighting for the men's return.
They also urged the Israeli government to secure a new hostage release deal.

The new video comes as Hamas said it was studying Israel's latest proposal for a truce. Media reports said mediator Egypt had sent a delegation to Israel to give fresh impetus to stalled negotiations.

Such a deal that included an agreement to free the remaining hostages could stop Israel's planned ground assault in the southern city of Rafah, Israel's foreign minister said on Saturday.

His daughter Ilan said: "Seeing my father today only emphasises to all of us how much we must reach a deal as soon as possible and bring everyone home. I demand that the leaders of this country watch this video and see their father crying out for help."

His other daughter Shir said: "If you watched the video, you saw that my father knows we are all coming to the rally every week and fighting for him and all the captives."

Speaking at the weekly demonstration in Tel Aviv demanding action to release the hostages on Saturday evening, Dani Miran, Omri Miran's father, led chanting by the crowds.

He was visibly emotional as he delivered a powerful speech, describing his excitement seeing the video of his son, knowing that "he was hopefully alive".

But his speech also had a political element. He talked directly to the government and specifically by name mentioned its far-right members - National Security Minister, Itamar ben Gvir and Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, calling on them to secure a hostage deal.

He urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "approve any viable deal".

"Take one small and bloodless step for both peoples," he said, adding: "All the people of Israel and the nations of the world want to see an end to the bloodshed and especially an end to the suffering of your people."

What was also notable was that before Omri's father made his speech, the hostage video was shown in full on big screens around Hostage Square.

This is highly unusual, as such videos are not generally played on TV.

The United States led a last-ditch effort Monday to secure a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that would head off an assault on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah.

U.S. officials do not believe Israel is ready to launch a full scale ground incursion of Rafah, providing a crucial window to secure a deal for a truce and the release of hostages still held by Hamas, two people familiar with the American position told NBC News.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in the Middle East leading the diplomatic effort — lent urgency by the possible military assault on Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering — after President Joe Biden reiterated U.S. opposition to a Rafah operation in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.

Blinken, speaking in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, said that the cease-fire proposal handed to Hamas by mediators from Qatar and Egypt was “extraordinarily generous.” He added that he was Hamas had to “decide quickly” about the offer and he was “hopeful that they will make the right decision.”

An Israeli official and an Arab diplomat with knowledge of the negotiations told NBC News that the deal on the table would see 33 hostages freed in the first stage in exchange for a temporary cease-fire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

The freed captives would be made up of women, children, the elderly, and those with serious medical conditions, the official said, adding that earlier talks had focused on a deal for 40 hostages butt that Hamas has indicated it may not having 40 living hostages who fit that criteria.

Israeli officials have previously said that 133 hostages remain in Gaza, although 34 were thought to be dead.

Talks had been at an impasse for weeks, but U.S. officials said they had been encouraged that Hamas had released two videos showing proof of life of three captives, which might indicate the militant group's interest in making a deal.

The fate of any deal will ultimately depend on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, believed to be underground in tunnels beneath Gaza, the U.S. officials said.

A mid-level delegation of Israeli security officials could travel to Cairo on Tuesday, depending on progress in the talks, the Israeli official said.

However, Hamas spokesperson, Abdul Latif Al-Qanou, said in a statement Monday that no agreement could succeed without a permanent cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the return of displaced people to their homes in Gaza.

Were a cease-fire to take effect and a deal struck to release the remaining hostages, U.S. officials believe that Netanyahu, who is coming under increasing pressure to secure their freedom at home, would find it harder to resume major military operations in Gaza, the two sources said.

There have been widespread protests in Israel calling for Netanyahu and his government to do more to secure the release of the remaining hostages.

But Israel’s government has appeared divided on the proposal in recent days.

Right-wing members of Netanyahu's cabinet have signaled their opposition, saying Israel should focus on attacking Rafah, and threatened to leave the government if the deal goes ahead. More moderate members, including war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, have said a hostage deal is more urgent than an offensive in Rafah.

Netanyahu has repeatedly signaled his intent to launch a full-scale ground invasion on the city where it says many remaining Hamas militants are holed up.

Blinken — on his seventh to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war started in October — told Arab officials on Monday that the best way to ease the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza would be to conclude a cease-fire agreement that would release hostages.

Moving toward a hostage deal and temporary cease-fire that could be extended is the chief goal of Blinken's trip, U.S. officials said.

They added that Blinken would meet with Egyptian and Qatari officials at the forum. Both countries have been pushing for a truce in Gaza and a high level delegation from Egypt visited Israel last week to discuss a prolonged cease-fire.

He will then travel to Jordan and Israel.

The U.S. also continues to pursue a broader deal that would involve a normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, a path toward an independent Palestinian state and a plan to rebuild Gaza, the American officials said.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, who is also attending the forum, said Monday that the most “important thing now is to avoid an attack on Rafah,” because it would be “catastrophic.” He added that there had been progress but there were still “fundamental issues” on both sides that needed to be ironed out. “There must be compromises on both sides,” he said.

Saudi Arabian Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan also said at the forum that “cool-headed countries and leaders and people need to prevail.” He added that the region needed “stability.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s military continued to bombard Rafah from the air over the weekend. Palestinian health offiicials said at least 22 people, including six women and five children, had been killed.

Israel is greatly concerned that the International Criminal Court may issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and senior military officials as early as this week, an Israeli official told NBC News.

Israel is working through diplomatic channels to try to stop the warrants being issued, the official said Monday.

When asked about media reports of the arrest warrants, the ICC told NBC News that it “has an ongoing independent investigation in relation to the Situation in the State of Palestine" and that "we have no further comment to make at this stage."

The court launched an investigation three years ago into possible war crimes committed by both Israel and Palestinian militants going back to the Israel-Hamas war in 2014. It has given no public indication that arrest warrants are imminent, and it was not clear whether Israel was also expecting arrest warrants for any Hamas leaders.

Any warrants would not mean that Netanyahu will end up in jail.

Neither Israel nor the United States recognize the court's jurisdiction, though any warrants would put Israeli officials at risk of arrest in other countries, including much of Europe.

They would also serve as a high-profile statement on Israel's actions in Gaza, and an embarrassing development that would put Netanyahu alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin as a major leader to face such action from the ICC.

Netanyahu said Friday that Israel “will never accept any attempt by the ICC to undermine its inherent right of self-defense.”

The Biden administration is setting its face against any possible prosecution of members of Israel’s government, amid speculation that the International Criminal Court (ICC) could soon issue arrest warrants over the conduct of the war in Gaza.

“We do not support it,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at Monday’s media briefing, referring to the ICC’s investigation, which encompasses the actions of Hamas as well as Israel. “We don’t believe they have the jurisdiction.”

Neither the United States nor Israel is among the 124 nations who are members of the ICC.

The International Court of Justice decided on Tuesday not to issue provisional measures against Germany for its arms sales to Israel, rejecting a demand filed by Nicaragua against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

The court ruled, however, that it would not dismiss the case from its docket as Germany had requested, saying it could only do so if there was a manifest lack of jurisdiction, which it asserted was not the situation in Nicaragua’s application.

Nicaragua filed its highly unusual application to the ICJ in February, accusing Berlin of violating the Genocide Convention for selling weapons to Israel during the ongoing conflict — during which, it alleged, Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza — and for suspending its funding of the Palestinian humanitarian agency UNRWA, which has been accused of complicity in terrorist activity against Israel.

Germany is a major arms supplier to Israel, accounting for 30 percent of all Israeli arms purchases in 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s annual report for that year, behind only the United States, which provided 69% of Israeli arms purchases in 2023.

The ICJ in its decision declined to accede to Nicaragua’s request that it order Berlin to suspend any aid, military assistance and delivery of military equipment to Israel and resume its funding to UNRWA.

“Based on the factual information and legal arguments presented by the parties, the court concludes that at present the circumstances are not such as to require the exercise of its power under article 41 of the statute to indicate provisional measures,” read ICJ court president Nawaf Salam from the court order.

The decision was made 15 to 1, with just the ad hoc judge selected by Nicaragua, Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh, voting against the decision.

The decision noted specifically Germany’s arguments that although its arms sales by revenue had increased significantly in 2023 over 2022, 98% of the arms sales licenses granted since the October 7 atrocities were not for “war weapons” as defined by German law, but rather “other military equipment,” and that of the four licenses granted for “war weapons” since that date, only one, for 3,000 anti-tank weapons, was suitable for combat operations.

The Germans also noted in their response that a 2023 request for tank ammunition by Israel is still under scrutiny.

Nevertheless, the court took the opportunity to point out that states are obligated to ensure that they are not in violation of the Geneva Conventions regarding the laws of war when supplying weapons to other states involved in armed conflicts.

The Court considers it particularly important to remind all States of their international obligations relating to the transfer of arms to parties to an armed conflict, in order to avoid the risk that such arms might be used to violate the above-mentioned Conventions. All these obligations are incumbent upon Germany as a State party to the said Conventions in its supply of arms to Israel,” stated the court.

When it came to Nicaragua’s claims about funding for UNRWA, the court pointed out that such funding was voluntary, and also noted Germany’s observation that when it froze funding, there was no pending payment for Berlin to the organization. In addition, the court noted that Germany had supported a €50 million ($53 million) payment to UNRWA by the European Union in March this year, as well as its funding for other humanitarian organizations in Gaza.

The court did state, however, that it remained “deeply concerned about the catastrophic living conditions of Palestinians in Gaza strip, in particular in view of the prolonged and widespread deprivation of food and other basic necessities to which they are being subjected.”

Rebuilding homes in the Gaza Strip could drag into the next century if the pace follows the trend of previous conflicts, according to a U.N. report released on Thursday.

Nearly seven months of Israeli bombardment have caused billions of dollars in damage, leaving many of the crowded strip’s high-rise concrete buildings reduced to heaps, with a U.N. official referring to a “moonscape” of destruction.

Palestinian data shows that around 80,000 homes have been destroyed in a conflict triggered by Hamas fighters’ deadly attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7. Israeli strikes have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

The assessment, released by the U.N. Development Programme, said Gaza needs “approximately 80 years to restore all the fully destroyed housing units.”

However, in a best-case scenario in which construction materials are delivered five times as fast as in the last crisis in 2021, it could be done by 2040, the report said.

The UNDP assessment makes a series of projections on the war’s socioeconomic impact based on the duration of the current conflict, projecting decades of ongoing suffering.

In a scenario where the war lasts nine months, poverty is set to increase from 38.8% of Gaza’s population at the end of 2023 to 60.7%, dragging a large portion of the middle class below the poverty line, the report said.

Israel talks about wanting to destroy Hamas but their actions ensure whoever replaces Hamas will not struggle in the slightest to find recruits.