Undercover Israeli commando unit responsible for extrajudicial killing of 80-year-old Palestinian woman Halima Abu Lail
(WASHINGTON, D.C., July 2, 2025)—The U.S. Department of State should disqualify from future assistance Unit 219 ("Duvdevan") of the Israeli Defense Forces for its role in gross violations of human rights, pursuant to the Leahy Law provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act, said DAWN today.
In a submission to the State Department, the organization detailed Duvdevan's role in the extrajudicial killing of 80-year-old Palestinian woman Halima Abu Lail while perfidiously disguised as an ambulance crew during a raid in the Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus, occupied West Bank. During the same raid, the Dudevan unit engaged in cruel, degrading, and inhuman treatment of a Palestinian civilian, Lara Sawalmeh, by using her as a human shield. (The same unit was responsible for the apparent extrajudicial killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11, 2022.)
"The IDF's Duvdevan Unit should not receive another dollar of U.S. taxpayer-funded assistance given the overwhelming evidence of its shocking abuses, including murder and perfidy," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, Israel-Palestine director at DAWN. "The Trump administration has an important opportunity to make clear to the Israeli military that its carte blanche to murder innocent people has come to an end."
On the morning of December 19, 2024, soldiers from the Duvdevan unit used a civilian minibus and an ambulance to drive into the central market of Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank. The Duvdevan soldiers immediately opened fire on members of a militant group, the Balata Brigade. The IDF claimed that members of the brigade fired at them, but video footage does not show any evidence of militants shooting or throwing explosives at the soldiers. In their initial burst of gunfire, the soldiers struck 80-year-old Halima Abu Lail, who was standing alone. Video footage shows that after she was wounded on the ground, Unit 217 soldiers fired several additional shots at her from the decoy ambulance in which they arrived. Soldiers shot Abu Lail in the chest, stomach, and left leg, and only allowed the Red Crescent access to her more than an hour later, after she had already died. Shooting a wounded person in the chest while they are lying prone on the ground is an extrajudicial killing, a grave violation of human rights.
"Last week, the Israeli government issued a directive denying entry to Israel to DAWN staff members, specifically for its work seeking individual accountability against Israeli soldiers," said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN. "As this latest submission to the State Department should make clear, DAWN will not allow authoritarian tactics to impede our work whatsoever."
Shortly after Duvdevan's arrival in Balata Refugee Camp on December 19, soldiers entered a third-floor apartment overlooking the central market in Balata Refugee Camp where, according to 23-year-old Lara Sawalmeh, 15 to 20 armed soldiers threatened her at gunpoint and confined her to the bathroom in her apartment.
A Duvdevan soldier later forced her from the bathroom, showed her a photo of the home across the street, and ordered her to enter the house and film its occupants. A Duvdevan soldier unlocked her phone, switched it to video mode, and forced her out into the street barefoot to film the neighbor's home.
Sawalmeh approached the home but received no response after knocking. The soldiers shouted commands at her, forced her to remove her coat, pointed their weapons at her face, and directed her into another nearby house where she was detained. Repeatedly, soldiers returned and tried to coerce Sawalmeh into filming inside the neighbor's home, which she refused to do.
By using Sawalmeh as a human shield, members of the Dudevan unit engaged in cruel, degrading, and inhuman treatment of a civilian, a grave violation of human rights.
The IDF has failed to hold the soldiers in the unit responsible for their abuses, or to impose any meaningful remediation to address the unit's abuses. Following the raid, the IDF acknowledged that noncombatants in the area were hit, but did not specifically address the killing of Abu Lail. The IDF further acknowledged the Duvdevan unit's unlawful use of an ambulance to carry out a military operation, stating that it was a serious offence and does not reflect the conduct of the IDF. However, the IDF merely reprimanded the Dudevan commander.
The Dudevan unit has a troubling history. Nearly three years earlier, on May 11, 2022, a sniper from the Duvdevan unit shot and killed renowned Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. A recent investigative documentary by Zeteo identified Alon Skagiu as the shooter. The IDF initially denied shooting Abu Akleh before video evidence forced an admission that it was likely responsible for killing her. Neither Israeli military nor civilian authorities pursued any criminal charges against Skagiu, instead promoting him and transferring him to a different unit. The FBI reportedly opened an investigation into the killing but never released the results. The State Department, without conducting its own investigation, claimed Abu Akleh's shooting was unintentional.
"It's beyond improbable that the United States has never once found an Israeli unit ineligible for U.S. military assistance despite the overwhelming evidence of abuses and major atrocities in Palestine," said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN. "By not disqualifying Duvdevan, the U.S. government is acting as an accomplice to Israeli war crimes against Palestinians, including Americans like Shireen Abu Akhleh."
The Leahy Law, passed in 1997, is an amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act that prohibits U.S. assistance to foreign security force units credibly implicated in gross human rights violations. Despite extensive documentation of Israeli forces committing gross human rights violations from credible sources, including the State Department's own Annual Human Rights Reports, the State Department has never prohibited a single Israeli unit from receiving aid.
A federal lawsuit filed recently with the assistance of DAWN seeks to compel the State Department to obey the Leahy Law with respect to Israel. Were the State Department to faithfully and fully enforce the Leahy Law with respect to Israel, the lawsuit asserts, many, if not most, Israeli security force units in Gaza would be found ineligible for U.S. assistance in light of the vast scale of abuses.
The plaintiffs are Palestinians and Palestinian-Americans who have lost family members or face imminent threats to themselves and their relatives due to Israeli military operations by units credibly implicated in gross violations of human rights. Their experiences collectively illustrate the extensive harm caused by Israeli military forces receiving U.S. assistance, in violation of the law. On April 30, Federal District Court Judge Ana Reyes stayed proceedings for 45 days, and suggested that the State Department meet with plaintiffs' representatives in a good-faith attempt to improve implementation of the law with regard to Israel. On June 30, the State Department rebuffed the judge's suggestion for a meeting.
"Congress intended to enforce the Leahy Law to prevent U.S. assistance to abusive security force units anywhere in the world, with no exception for Israel," said Charles Blaha, senior advisor at DAWN who spent over 30 years in the State Department. "Secretary Rubio has both the legal obligation and the moral responsibility to apply the Leahy Law consistently—whether the recipient is Israel or any other U.S. partner."
