Trump revokes US sanctions against illegal Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank
A member of security for the Israeli Bracha settlement gestures amid clashes between settlers and Palestinians in Burin village, after settlers reportedly set cars on fire in the village in the occupied West Bank on Feb. 25, 2023 (AFP Photo)
U.S. President Donald Trump decided Monday to rescind an executive order by the Biden administration that imposed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
It was among 78 executive orders rescinded by Trump not long after he stepped into the Oval Office.
Executive Order 14115, titled “Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace, Security and Stability in the West Bank,” targeted illegal Israeli settlers who committed “high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction.”
The order, signed by Biden on Feb. 1, 2024, said that illegal Israeli settler violence “undermines the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution and ensuring Israelis and Palestinians can attain equal measures of security, prosperity and freedom.”
21 Palestinians injured in West Bank assault by Israeli settlers
As many as 21 Palestinians sustained injuries late Monday as illegal Israeli settlers attacked two Palestinian towns near the city of Qalqilya, northern occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medical teams treated those injured by the settlers’ attacks in the towns of Jinsafut and Al-Fanduq.
The victims suffered bruises as they were beaten by the settlers and also suffered from tear gas inhalation fired by the Israeli forces, the humanitarian group said.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted Jalal Bashir, head of the Jinsafut municipal council, as saying that the settlers set fire to three homes, a nursery, and a carpentry workshop and also torched several vehicles owned by Palestinians.
Loui Tayem, the mayor of Al-Fanduq, told Anadolu that “dozens of illegal settlers attacked citizens’ homes and vehicles on the outskirts, burning a car and several other vehicles, as well as damaging multiple shops.”
He described the situation as “tense,” adding: “We hear gunfire from time to time, but we cannot identify its source.”
Violence perpetrated by settlers and Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank has increased since the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023.
A cease-fire and prisoner exchange agreement in the enclave took effect on Sunday.
In July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
