Normally, Passover is a time of togetherness for Jewish people. This year, it's a time of tension. Especially on U.S. college campuses.

I think particularly the last few days, I've felt uncomfortable around this university. I've felt like this is not a welcoming environment.

'After Columbia University's president sent in the New York City Police Department to break up a largely peaceful pro-Palestinian encampment late last week, Jewish students have reported a number of disturbing anti-Semitic incidents.

Remeber the 7th of October, the 7th of October, never forget the 7th of October. That will happen not one more time...

'For just one example, Columbia's monthly magazine sundial shared a video with CNN which showed protesters on the street just outside campus yelling at Jewish students about October 7th, saying it would happen 10,000 more times. Main campus classes will be hybrid until the end of the semester. At Yale, police stormed in to clear pro-Palestinian protest on campus there. They arrested about 45 people and charged them with criminal trespassing after they claimed the group refused orders to leave. Other camps have sprung up on campuses around the country in solidarity, while questions remain about when exactly free speech tips into hate speech. Meanwhile, in Israel, the fallout from October 7th continues to reverberate. 200 days later, Israel's military intelligence chief quit his job earlier this week. He's the first senior military figure to actually resign over the intelligence failure. And all the while, hostage families are furious. Their loved ones are still not home. But today we're going to talk about a new move that could be coming from the US that already has Israeli leaders hopping mad.

He's also described the idea of putting such sanctions on this unit as, in his words, absurd and a moral a low.

From CNN this is Tug of War. I'm David Rind.

CNN's Nada Bashir is here. She is joining us from London. And Nada, for the last few days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some other ministers have kind of been preemptively lashing out against possible sanctions coming from the US. Can you explain what's going on here?

'Well, we saw just last week the US Treasury Department imposing sanctions on individuals and organizations accused of acts of extremism and violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. But the State Department is also now reportedly considering for the first time whether or not to cut military assistance to an Israeli military unit known as the nets are Yehuda Battalion. Now, this military unit was established back in the late 1990s to accommodate ultra-Orthodox Jews, but members of the battalion also include radical right wing settlers, and it is a unit which has repeatedly been accused of human rights abuses against the Palestinian people for years now, predating October 7th. So there is a lot of controversy now around this unit. Now, at this stage is no clear indication from the Biden administration as to whether or when such funding cuts or assistance cuts would be announced. Last week we did hear from the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. He said that he's already made a determination with regards to support for Israeli security units more broadly, but he didn't offer any specific details about which units these sanctions would be targeting.

But that would be like a big deal, right, for the U.S. to specifically sanction an Israeli military unit in the IDF, that seems like a big step.

'Absolutely. It would be a significant step on the part of the Biden administration. It would be the first time that the US government has sanctioned the Israeli military. And in fact, Israeli officials have been quite clear in trying to show that this is for them, a sanction against the Israeli military as a whole, not just this specific unit. We've heard fierce backlash from some Israeli officials. War cabinet member Benny Gantz has said that this battalion is, in his words, an inseparable part of the Israel Defense Forces, that it comes under Israeli military law, that it operates in full compliance with international law, according to Gantz. We've heard, of course, from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has said that these sanctions must not be imposed. He said that he is in discussions already with senior members of the US government to work against the imposition of these sanctions. But he's also described the idea of putting such sanctions on this unit as, in his words, absurd and a moral low on the part of the US government. But, of course, important to remember that Netanyahu's coalition is largely held together by ultra-Orthodox politicians. So that will certainly be a significant consideration for the prime minister. And this is also, of course, coming in the same week that we're seeing the U.S. State Department release its annual report on human rights. This report, of course, doesn't represent the U.S. government's own conclusions, but it has been released by the State Department. And what it has highlighted this year is serious concerns over the human rights violations carried out by Israeli authorities against Palestinian people in the occupied territories. These have long been denied by Israeli authorities on the Israeli government, who say that they act in accordance with international law. But of course, that stands in contrast to many accounts and reports that we've seen from multiple human rights organizations.

Yeah, I was going to say it's been a while since we've kind of checked in on the occupied West Bank and these areas that have seen a lot of violence and unrest. So what is happening on the ground there in the last few weeks?

Well, we continue to see significant rounds of violence in the occupied West Bank. We know, of course, that there's been a huge spike in violence since October 7th, both in terms of violence carried out by Israeli soldiers, but also, of course, violence carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinians. Now, according to the UN agency for Palestine Refugees, more than 450 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been killed since October 7th, including 112 children. And in fact, 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank in two decades. So we are seeing huge amounts of violence right now.

For the second day in a row, armed Israeli settlers descend on Almeria, burning homes and vehicles in this village in the occupied West Bank, when suddenly. A shot rings out...

And what we are seeing now when it comes to those settler attacks is a real spike in violence, a real spike in settler attacks against Palestinian villages.

They are setting fire to vehicles, just as they did yesterday. And also we have heard shots being fired. One Palestinian man was shot in the leg. We saw him being taken out by ambulance and we're still hearing shots in the distance.

And of course, this has been condemned somewhat by Israeli officials. We've heard from the defense minister. You have to saying that members of the public shouldn't be taking the law into their own hands. Netanyahu has also issued some criticism, but it hasn't really been any concrete action to tackle this violence.

Yeah, I was going to say I've heard those condemnations as well. We've seen the US kind of slapped sanctions on some of the extremist settlers and even some groups that have financed some of these settlements. But this violence just keeps happening and we keep seeing these settler attacks.

Absolutely. We have seen tough action by members of the international community, sanctions being put in place, against individuals and organizations by the likes of the United States and other members of the international community. But when it comes to the action being taken by the Israeli government as a whole, there hasn't been enough or tougher action when it comes to trying to tackle that violence. And in fact, we've heard that multiple times now from Palestinians across the occupied West Bank.

You can see here in Live Between Us now, no one have gone. No one, no one can cause any danger for any Israeli settlement or settler. So why is it why we can't live with freedom?

Who fear for the lives of their children, who fear for their livelihood as well. You know, many of these communities are farming communities or agricultural communities, right? And, are being targeted in that way as well. So they are facing an environment where they do not feel that they have any sort of protection.

More with nada after the break. Welcome back to Tug of War. And my conversation with CNN is not a bash here. So not a while. The violence on Palestinians in the West Bank is obviously super disturbing. I don't want to lose sight of what is going on in Gaza right now. So can you catch us up on the state of play there?

Well, the situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate. We are still seeing airstrikes across the Gaza Strip. And of course, what we have seen the Israeli military withdraw from some areas in the South. We are hearing really troubling reports of what has been left in the aftermath of that military presence on the ground, particularly in foreign units. With just over the last two days, we have seen reports now of a new mass grave being discovered near the grounds of the Nasser Hospital. Now. The Nasser Hospital was under an Israeli siege in February, and earlier this year we had seen families and medics burying their relatives and loved ones in temporary grave sites on the hospital's grounds. They were unable to carry out proper burials because of the security situation, because of the ongoing airstrikes, and simply because it was too dangerous and unsafe. Now, what we've seen over the last week is a mass grave being discovered and family members returning to the grounds of the Nasser Hospital, hoping to locate their buried loved ones and bury them properly, only to find that their bodies have been moved and placed in this mass grave. At this stage, Gaza's civil defense has said that they have recovered more than 300 bodies from this mass grave, and we have seen graphic, distressing video of already decomposing bodies being pulled through the.

*Woman crying*

Family members telling our colleagues on the ground in Gaza that in January that, you know, they they remember where they buried their loved ones, they had placed them. And now unable to find their daughters, their sons, brothers, family members, it's.

Like bad enough that their loved one was killed, but now they can't even give them a proper burial.

Absolutely. There is simply no dignity for the Palestinian people in Gaza, not even in death.

*Woman sobbing*

But what's worse is that we are hearing really troubling reports around these discoveries at this mass grave, the bodies being recovered. Members of Gaza civil defense telling us that they have found bodies with their hands bound together. They feel that this is an indication of possible field executions. And that would be a huge violation, of course, of international humanitarian law. You know, we've reached out to the Israeli military for comment, no direct response with regards to allegations of field executions, but they have now acknowledged that some of these bodies that were buried on the grounds, they announced another hospital were dug up and in there was examined. And they say they carried out these examinations in a careful manner in places where intelligence indicated the possible presence of hostages, that essentially they were carrying out tests to identify whether any of the Israeli hostages were among those buried. The IDF has said that the examinations were carried out respectfully while maintaining the dignity of the deceased. But this really stands in contrast to the accounts that we're hearing from Palestinian officials on the ground, from Palestinian families looking for their loved ones on the ground. And frankly, in contrast to the video that we are seeing emerging, which appears to show an enormous mass grave with decomposing bodies clearly not marked, and the process of actually identifying the bodies clearly very difficult for the authorities.

Yeah. And for anyone just trying to find their loved one's body, hearing that it was being examined to see if it was a hostage probably means very, very little to them at this point. Not a thank you.

Thank you.

Tug of War is a production of CNN Audio. This episode was produced by Paola Ortiz and me, David Riind. Our senior producer is Haley Thomas. Dan Dzula is our technical director, and Steve Lickteig is the executive producer of CNN Audio. We get support from Alex Manasseri, Robert Mathers, John Dianora, Leni Steinhart, Jamuss Andrest, Nichole Pesaru, and Lisa Namerow. Special thanks to Caroline Patterson and Katie Hinman. And just one more note if you live in the Seattle area, next weekend on May 4th. Nada Bashir and I will be at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival. We're going to be taping a live episode of this show. So if you're going to be there, please come join us and say hi. It's next weekend on May 4th. In the meantime, we'll be back with a new episode on Friday. I'll talk to you then.