EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell announced on Friday that he intends to propose sanctions against Israeli officials in response to attacks by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank “with near-total impunity”.
“We condemn the settler attacks in Jit, aimed at terrorising Palestinian civilians,” Borrell said on X. “The Israeli government must immediately put an end to these unacceptable acts,” he continued.
“I confirm my intention to put on the table a proposal for EU sanctions against those who make the acts of these violent settlers possible, including some members of the Israeli government,” he added.
Such sanctions should be adopted unanimously by the 27, who remain very divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
The attack on Thursday evening in Jit, a village in the north of the Palestinian territory, left one person dead, “shot by settlers”, and one seriously injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The White House called the violence “unacceptable”. Israeli President Isaac Herzog “strongly condemned” the attack and called the violence a “pogrom”.
Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, violence has flared up in the occupied West Bank.
At least 633 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by the Israeli army or settlers, according to an AFP count based on official Palestinian data, and at least 18 Israelis, including soldiers, in Palestinian attacks or during army operations in the Palestinian autonomous zone, according to official Israeli data.
This article is originally published on icibeyrouth.com
