Al Jazeera Podcasts.

Today, the United States could sanction units of Israel's military for rights abuses for the very first time.

With Israel, it's kind of backwards.

The AIDS already gone out.

And then post facto, we review allegations that come in.

The U.S. State Department allegedly failed to act for months.

Will it now?

I'm Malika Bilal, and this is The Take.

To understand where this story comes from, we're starting in 2021, with an allegation that made

its way to the U.S. State Department.

Back then, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was arrested by Israel's border police after he was

accused of throwing stones and Molotov cocktails.

While he was detained, according to a Palestinian nonprofit, he was subjected to both physical

and sexual torture.

He said he was raped by his interrogators in order to confess to throwing the rocks at Molotov cocktails.

In the U.S., the allegation was reviewed by something called the Israel-Lahey

Veting Forum. It's a special panel of experts at the State Department meant to review

whether USA to Israel violates something called the Leahy laws. Those laws require the U.S. to cut off

aid to any foreign military units with credible accusations of human rights violations.

So today, I'm speaking with a journalist who broke a story about that panel that's been making waves in the State Department.

My name is Brett Murphy. I'm an investigative reporter for ProPublica.

So, Brett, welcome to the take. I am going to deduce that you've had a pretty busy weekend with lots of news developments.

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