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United States President Joe Biden has approved sanctions against four Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians in the West Bank.
When signing an executive order authorising the sanctions, Mr Biden described violence in the West Bank as reaching intolerable levels.
The sanctions will stop the four settlers from accessing all US property and other assets, as well as from using its financial system.
State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller says they’ve held some very frank conversations with Israel about what he calls extremist settler violence.
“That includes some very detailed conversations where we have presented cases to the Israeli government, cases of settler violence where we have seen reports and where we have seen documented settler violence and asked them to take action and we have seen them take some action. And so we’ve engaged in a back and forth with them both at the Secretary’s level and through our embassy. What we have seen, and I should say we have seen since those interventions over the past month, six weeks, two months, we have seen the level of extremist settler violence come down somewhat, not come down enough. We want to see more.”
Israel has criticised the sanctions – saying there is no room for exceptional measures in this regard.
United Nations statistics reveal daily settler attacks have more than doubled in the nearly four months since Hamas militants on October 7 carried out an attack on Israel and Israel responded with an assault on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Mr Biden’s order is a rare step against America’s closest ally in the Middle East who he says, has the right to defend itself.
But President Biden’s efforts during the war haven’t been well received by all.
Mr Biden’s recent visit to Michigan, a critical battleground state with the nation’s highest density of Arab Americans, has been overshadowed by residents’ anger.
Farah Khan is a member of the Abandon Biden Campaign.
“I just want to say to Mr. Biden that you are absolutely not welcome in Michigan. Our trust bestowed upon you through our votes has been shattered as we feel deceived and robbed of our hard-earned money, which you dedicated towards Israel, unleashing havoc on innocent lives.”
Meanwhile in Türkiye, staff have been taken hostage at a Procter & Gamble factory as part of a protest against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The unidentified man reportedly entered the factory in Kocaeli province, taking seven people hostage.
A photo released by local media shows a man inside the factory whose face is covered with a Palestinian scarf and wearing what looked possibly like an explosive device.
This man’s relative is among those taken hostage.
“Of course, we are afraid. Who can’t be? He wrapped himself with explosives, carrying a gun and fired into air three times when entering.”
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant says its military has almost completed its operations in the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis and is poised to move further south towards the border with Egypt.
The army has focused its offensive in recent weeks on Khan Younis, saying the city is a Hamas stronghold.
Minister Gallant says they’ve killed at least 2,000 Hamas militants there and destroyed a number of important tunnels in the militant group’s underground network.
“We must persevere until we complete our missions. And it is much more difficult for Hamas, believe me. They don’t have weapons, they don’t have ammunition, they don’t have the ability to treat the wounded, they have 10,000 eliminated terrorists and another 10,000 terrorists who are wounded and not functioning. This is a serious blow that erodes Hamas’ abilities.”
United Nations data suggests over 26,000 [[26,751]] Palestinians have been killed and more than 65,000 [[65,636]] injured since October 7.
It comes as the U-S is preparing a larger response to a drone attack which killed three U-S service members in Jordan.
The attack was attributed to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah.
President Biden has decided how to punish the Iranian proxies and has said Iran is responsible for supplying the militant groups weapons and training.
The Pentagon has previously struck proxy sites in response to attacks by Iranian-backed militias, but Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin says it’s time to take away from Iran’s capabilities.
“This particular attack was egregious in that, you know, the attack, was on the sleeping area of one of our base. And again, Kataib Hezbollah and other, elements, continue to, attack our troops. And, and again, I think at this point, we should, it’s time to, to take away even more capability than we’ve taken in the past.
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