The Joe Biden administration has informed Israel that the US will impose visa bans on Israeli extremist settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, a senior state department official said.
According to a report in Reuters, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet informed them that the US will take its own action against an undisclosed number of individuals.
The visa ban on the selected individuals is expected to come into force in the next few weeks. The Israeli government have offered no response on the development but said that Israel firmly condemned any vigilantism or hooliganism or attempts by individuals to take the law into their own hands.
The West Bank in the Palestinians territories has experienced a surge of violence in recent months amid expanding Jewish settlements and a nearly decade-old impasse in the peacemaking process.
The violence in the Palestinian territories surged further after Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 in which Israeli officials say about 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and around 240 were taken hostage.
The US has repeatedly expressed its concern over the rising violence in the West Bank, saying it must stop. US President Joe Biden, in an opinion piece last month threatened to take action against the perpetrators.
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