US President Joe Biden has imposed penalties on four Israeli settlers who are accused of harming Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Biden issued a sweeping executive order, stating that violence in the West Bank had reached “intolerable levels.”
Individuals are denied access to all US property, assets, and the American financial system as a result of the sanctions.
Violence in the West Bank has spiked since Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October.
Some 370 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since then, according to the UN.
The majority of those have been killed by Israeli forces but at least eight of them have been killed by Israeli settlers, the UN said.
According to the new executive order, the US government can sanction any foreign nationals who harm, threaten, or confiscate Palestinian property.
The sanctions are a first for the US government, an unusual action aimed at Israelis, and come as Mr Biden travels to Michigan, a state with a substantial Arab-American population that has criticized his backing for Israel.
The Arab American Institute, an advocacy group, previously stated that since the beginning of the conflict, Arab Americans’ support for the Democratic Party has dropped from 59% in 2020 to 17%.
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