The unprecedented executive order is the most significant step any US administration has ever taken in response to violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
There have been nearly 500 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians since Oct. 7, according to the UN humanitarian office (OCHA).
The news suggests that the Biden administration has raised its concerns about settler violence numerous times with different Israeli officials over the last three years, Axios reported.
After the settler violence reached record levels following the Oct. 7 Hamas operation against the occupying regime, Biden raised the issue publicly and privately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Other senior US officials have also brought up the issue with their Zionist counterparts in recent months.
Biden in November ordered the secretaries of state and treasury to prepare possible sanctions against Zionist individuals or entities involved in violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The first round of sanctions under the new executive order includes four Israeli settlers who the US said were directly involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank and systematic acts that led to the forced displacement of Palestinian communities.
The executive order also allows the administration to impose sanctions on additional individuals who directed or participated in acts or threats of violence against Palestinian civilians, intimidated Palestinian civilians causing them to leave their homes, destroyed or seized property of Palestinian civilians, or were involved in acts of terrorism against Palestinian civilians.
The news comes while the US has provided military support for the Israeli regime in its ongoing brutal war against the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli regime waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s atrocities against Palestinians.
More than 26,700 Palestinians, some 70 percent of whom are women, children, and adolescents, have been killed in the brutal onslaught so far.
The United States has been providing Israel with unbridled military and political support in its onslaught against Gaza, arming Tel Aviv with more than 10,000 tons of military hardware. The US has also torpedoed the prospect of cessation of the Israeli aggression by stonewalling ratification of all United Nations Security Council resolutions that have been calling for a permanent ceasefire in the Israeli aggression.
MP/PR
