Better late than never: US sanctions Israeli settlers

The US has imposed sanctions on an Israeli nonprofit and a Jewish-occupied West Bank settlement security official in Washington's latest effort to punish illegal Jewish settlers it accuses of violence against Palestinians.

Hashomer Yosh, a non-governmental organisation that says it helps protect illegal settlers, provided material support to an unauthorised occupied West Bank outpost already subject to sanctions, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday.

The official is Yitzhak Levi Filant, a civilian security coordinator at the illegal Yitzhar settlement who led a group of armed illegal settlers in February to set up roadblocks and conduct patrols aimed at forcing Palestinians from their land, Miller said.

"Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security, and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region," Miller said in a statement.

The statement called on Israel to hold those responsible for the violence accountable.

The sanctions freeze the US assets of those targeted, denying them access, and generally bar Americans from dealing with them.

The sanctions will be imposed under an executive order on occupied West Bank violence that President Joe Biden signed in February.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel" and there will be "a pointed discussion with the US"

The Biden administration in February said illegal settlements were inconsistent with international law, signalling a return to long-standing US policy on the issue that had been reversed by the previous administration of Donald Trump.

Netanyahu's ultra-nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir denounced earlier sanctions against settlers.