The US President issues a presidential decision imposing sanctions on settlers involved in terrorist attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. A decision allows the targeting of Israeli officials involved in terrorist attacks on settlers in the West Bank, whether by invitation or incitement.

US President Joe Biden intends to sign a presidential order, later today, Thursday, allowing the imposition of new sanctions on settlers involved in terrorist attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. At this stage, the sanctions target four settlers involved in terrorist attacks.

This came according to what the political correspondent of the Israeli Walla website and the American Axios website reported, citing high-ranking officials in the White House. The report noted that the presidential order allows future sanctions to be imposed on Israeli politicians or government officials involved in terrorist attacks targeting Palestinians.

American officials explained that "the first round of sanctions imposed under the new presidential order will include four settlers who were directly involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to American information, as well as in systematic activities that led to the forced displacement of Palestinian communities."

The report did not reveal the identity of the four settlers targeted in the first round of sanctions. On the other hand, the Israeli government claims that it “has taken steps in the last two months that have led to a significant decrease in the number of attacks carried out by settlers in the occupied West Bank.”

Under the US sanctions, any assets or bank accounts held by these four settlers in the United States of America will be frozen, and sanctions will be imposed on parties that deal with them commercially or transfer money to them through the American banking system, and they will not be allowed to enter the United States.

The expected presidential decree allows the administration to “impose sanctions on persons who have directed or participated in acts of violence or threats of violence against Palestinians, intimidated Palestinians in an attempt to force them to leave their homes, destroyed or confiscated Palestinian property, or in acts of terrorism against Palestinian citizens.”

American officials explained that "one of the prominent provisions in the new presidential decree allows in the future to impose sanctions on Israeli politicians and government officials directly or indirectly involved in acts of violence against Palestinian citizens."

The order states that people “who direct, implement, implement, carry out, or refrain from implementing policies in a manner that threatens the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank” may be subject to US sanctions, and the order allows for sanctions to be imposed on people who provide support or financial assistance to settlers who have carried out attacks against the Palestinians.

The report described the US President's anticipated step as "unprecedented and the most important taken by any US administration ever to deal with settler violence against Palestinian citizens in the occupied West Bank," while Tel Aviv believes that US allegations regarding settler terrorism are "exaggerated."

High-level American officials said that this measure reflects the vision of the Biden administration, which believes that “extremist settler attacks against Palestinians have reached levels that constitute a threat to security in the West Bank and the entire Middle East, and undermine the foreign policy goals of the United States, especially the possibility of implementing the two-state solution.”

According to American officials, the White House, the State Department, and the US Treasury Department began drafting the presidential order secretly several weeks ago, and the Biden administration did not inform the Israeli government of the new order until today, shortly before it was announced.

The report explained that the Biden administration studied the possibility of including Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in the list of people targeted by sanctions, “but in the end it decided to exclude them from the list and focus at this stage on the people involved in carrying out the attacks.”

Biden and other senior American officials have repeatedly warned that Israel must act to stop the violence committed by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. Attacks there have escalated in the past few months in light of settlement expansion.

Settler attacks have also escalated since the attack of last October 7, and last December, the United States began imposing a ban on...