EU Foreign Ministers Approve Sanctions On Israeli Settlers Over West Bank Violence

The European Union’s twenty-seven foreign ministers approved new sanctions on Monday on Israeli settlers over rising violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with the UN recording a surge in attacks by settlers since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said it was "high time we move from deadlock to delivery... extremisms and violence carry consequences."

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The BBC reports that a change in government in Hungary ended months of delays to the EU’s plans for further sanctions, which had been blocked by former right-wing Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, a close ally of Israel.

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar said the decision was "arbitrary and political" and that Israel would continue to "stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland."

France 24 frames settler violence as deliberate and backed by military support, with Jean-Emile Jammine joining Eid Hathaleen, a Palestinian human rights activist and lifelong resident of the Bedouin village of Umm al-Khair in the occupied West Bank.

Hathaleen describes the violence as systematic and insists these are "not random acts of brutality, but calculated attacks."

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Anadolu Ajansı reports that armed settlers attacked the towns of Sinjel and Jaljilia in the central West Bank, with the Palestinian Health Ministry saying a child, Yusuf Ali Yusuf Kaabneh (16), was killed by Israeli forces’ gunfire near Jaljilia north of Ramallah.

Anadolu Ajansı adds that residents confronted the settlers, who during the assault looted about 700 head of sheep and farming equipment, while eyewitnesses said the settlers had protection from the Israeli army.

Al-Jazeera Net says an Israeli settler attack on Wednesday killed a child and wounded three Palestinians north of Ramallah, with the Palestinian Health Ministry announcing that 16-year-old Yousif Ali Yousif Ka'abneh was martyred by occupation forces with a bullet near Jaljilia north of Ramallah.

“An Israeli settler attack on Wednesday killed a child and wounded three Palestinians north of Ramallah, while the army raided several areas and arrested dozens”

Al-Jazeera Net

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society told Al-Jazeera Net that its crews transported to the hospital a child in critical condition as a result of a live bullet to the chest from the settlers’ attack, and it also transported three other injuries from the settlers’ attack, including two by gunfire and one from a beating.

Al-Jazeera Net further reports that Israeli occupation forces raided several areas at dawn, arrested dozens of Palestinians, and raided homes and a school, coinciding with dozens of settlers storming the Tomb of Yusuf shrine east of Nablus to perform religious rites.

Anadolu Ajansı places the broader context in the West Bank, saying that since October 2023, assaults by the Israeli army and settlers in the West Bank have killed 1,155 Palestinians, injured about 11,750 others, and detained around 22,000, according to official Palestinian figures.