WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Thursday issued an executive order that targets Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been attacking Palestinians in the occupied territory, imposing financial sanctions and visa bans in an initial round against four individuals.
Those settlers were involved in acts of violence, as well as threats and attempts to destroy or seize Palestinian property, according to the order. The penalties aim to block the four from using the US financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them. US officials said they were evaluating whether to punish others involved in attacks that have intensified during the Israel-Hamas war.
Palestinian authorities say some Palestinians have been killed, and rights groups say settlers have torched cars and attacked several small Bedouin communities, forcing evacuations.
Biden is facing growing criticism for his administration’s strong support of Israel as casualties mount in the conflict, which began when Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
His order is a rare step against America’s closest ally in the Mideast who, Biden says, has the right to defend itself. But the Democratic president has pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to show greater restraint in its military operations aimed at rooting out Hamas.
Biden has spoken out against retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers and pledged that those responsible for the violence will be held accountable. He said in late October that the violence by “extremist settlers” amounted to “pouring gasoline” on the already burning fires in the Middle East. “It has to stop. They have to be held accountable. It has to stop now,” Biden said.
Israel Defense Forces stepped up raids across the West Bank after the war began. Hamas militants are present in the West Bank, but largely operate underground because of Israel’s tight grip on the territory. Palestinians have accused the Israeli military of not preventing attacks by settlers or, at times, of even protecting those settlers.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met on Wednesday at the White House with Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs. US officials said the Israeli government was notified in advance of the sanctions.
The order will give the Treasury Department the authority to impose financial sanctions on settlers engaged in violence, but is not meant to target US citizens. A substantial number of the settlers in the West Bank hold US citizenship, and they would be prohibited under US law from transacting with the sanctioned individuals.
US lawmakers have zeroed in on the role of Americans or dual citizens in the settler violence and intimidation. In a letter last month, Sen. Ben Cardin, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked the White House to take action against any US citizens involved in attacks against Palestinians. He said that could include criminal charges and financial sanctions.
“There’s got to be a strong message against the extreme activities taken by some settlers on the West Bank, jeopardizing the lives of Palestinians as well as the peace in the region,” Cardin, D-Md., told reporters Thursday.
Biden’s order was first reported by Politico.
Officials said there are no plans to penalize far-right Israeli ministers who have defended the violence by Israeli settlers and have called for the expansion of settlements.
The new executive order comes as Biden was set to visit Michigan on Thursday to rally support from union members in a key presidential battleground state. The Democratic president has faced sharp criticism from Arab and Muslim leaders over his handling of the war with Hamas, and the shadow of the conflict has some Democrats worrying that it could have a major effect on the outcome in the November election.
The president’s campaign team has already seen alarming signs of the growing rift with Michigan’s Arab American community.
Last week, the president’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez traveled to suburban Detroit and found a number of community leaders unwilling to meet with her. Some frustrated by Biden’s Israel policy are working to discourage voters from supporting the president in the general election.
The State Department announced in December it would impose travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in a rash of recent attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The department did not announce individual visa bans. But officials said at the time the bans would cover “dozens” of settlers and their families, with more to come if the violence continued.
Biden sanctions four Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinians in the West Bank
https://arab.news/ne4kp
Biden sanctions four Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinians in the West Bank
- Settlers involved in acts of violence, as well as threats and attempts to destroy or seize Palestinian property
- Penalties aim to block four from using US financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them
Four dead in fire at major Cairo telecomms hub, Internet disrupted
Internet and phone connections were still heavily disrupted in Cairo on Tuesday, with the Egyptian stock exchange suspending operations.
Flights into and out of the capital had also been affected by the fire, which began on Monday evening, although by the following morning the civil aviation ministry said all flights had resumed following delays caused by the blaze.
Gas and electricity outages were also reported on Monday by Cairo governor Ibrahim Saber.
“Civil defense forces recovered four bodies from the scene of the incident,” the healthy ministry said in a statement.
The authorities are yet to announce a cause for the fire, nor has any information been given about the 27 injured.
Local media reported that the fire at the Ramses Exchange, the former communications ministry headquarters, was extinguished on Monday night.
Jordanian helicopters continue to help Syria in containing wildfires for 6th day
- Wildfires in Latakia’s rugged Jabal Turkman region were sparked by combination of unexploded ordnance, drought
- Damascus sought support from the EU to combat wildfires on Tuesday
LONDON: Jordanian air forces continue to assist authorities in Syria’s coastal region to combat wildfires, which have damaged more than 10,000 hectares of land over six days.
Jordan was one of the first countries to dispatch help to the Syrian Arab Republic, alongside Lebanon and Turkiye, all neighboring countries. The UN also deployed teams to assist Syria, while on Tuesday, Damascus sought support from the EU to combat the fires.
The wildfires in Latakia’s Jabal Turkman region were sparked by a combination of unexploded ordnance from the country’s civil war as well as high temperatures and drought.
Jordan sent two Black Hawk helicopters with firefighting crews and equipment. The Jordanian mission is working to prevent the further expansion of fires and mitigate the impact on local communities and ecosystems, Petra reported.
The wildfires have been difficult to contain due to rugged terrain, dense vegetation, landmines, unexploded ordnance and high winds, which have further complicated response efforts, authorities said.
The decision to help Syria demonstrates Jordan’s commitment to providing humanitarian support and responding to regional crises, Petra added.
Qatar says ‘we will need time’ for Gaza ceasefire
- Qatar says the meetings in Doha are focused on a framework for the talks
- US President Donald Trump earlier voiced optimism about a possible breakthrough
DOHA: Qatar said Tuesday more time was needed for negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, after US President Donald Trump voiced optimism about a possible breakthrough.
“I don’t think that I can give any timeline at the moment, but I can say right now that we will need time for this,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said as indirect negotiations continued into a third day in Doha.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington, meanwhile, on his third visit to the White House since Trump returned to power.
Trump, who is pushing for a ceasefire, expressed confidence a deal could be reached, saying: “I don’t think there is a hold-up. I think things are going along very well.”
Qatar, a mediator along with the United States and Egypt, said the meetings in Doha were focused on a framework for the talks, while a Palestinian official close to the negotiations said no breakthrough had been achieved so far.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was set to join the talks in Doha this week.
On the ground, five Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in northern Gaza — one of the deadliest days this year for Israeli forces in the Palestinian territory.
Gaza’s civil defense meanwhile reported 29 killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday.
Israel and Hamas began the latest round of negotiations on Sunday, with representatives seated in separate rooms within the same building.
At the White House, sitting across from Netanyahu, Trump said Hamas was willing to end the Gaza conflict, now in its 22nd month.
“They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire,” Trump said when asked if ongoing clashes would derail talks.
An Israeli official accompanying Netanyahu to Washington said the proposal under discussion was “80-90 percent of what Israel wanted.”
“I believe that with military and political pressure, all the hostages can be returned,” the official told Israeli media.
According to Ariel Kahana of Israel Hayom daily, “President Trump and his advisers are currently exerting considerable effort to reach an agreement that would lead to the release of the hostages and could even end the war in Gaza.”
However, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir opposed negotiations with Hamas, saying that “there is no need to negotiate with those who murder our fighters; they must be torn to shreds.”
Netanyahu described the loss of five soldiers in Gaza as a “difficult morning” and mourned “our heroic soldiers who risked their lives in the battle to defeat Hamas and free all our hostages.”
Israeli military correspondents reported the deaths occurred due to improvised explosive devices near Beit Hanun in northern Gaza.
According to the Israeli military, 450 soldiers have been killed in the Gaza military campaign since the start of the ground offensive on October 27, 2023.
Gaza’s civil defense agency reported 29 people killed in Israeli strikes across the territory, including three children.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the agency, said nine of those were killed in a drone strike on a camp for displaced people in southern Gaza.
“I was in front of my tent preparing breakfast for my four children – beans and a bit of dry bread. Suddenly, there was an explosion,” said Shaimaa Al-Shaer, 30, who lives in the camp.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military when contacted by AFP.
The war has created dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s more than two million people.
While Israel has the full backing of the Trump administration, the US leader has increasingly pushed for an end to what he called the “hell” in Gaza and said on Sunday he believed there was a “good chance” of an agreement this coming week.
“The utmost priority for the president right now in the Middle East is to end the war in Gaza and to return all of the hostages,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The US proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel, two Palestinian sources close to the discussions had earlier said.
Hamas was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system, they said.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,575 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers the figures reliable.
Syria seeks European help as forest wildfires rage
- The fires have been burning for six days, with Syrian emergency crews struggling to bring them under control amid strong winds and severe drought
DAMASCUS: Syria’s minister of emergencies and disaster management on Tuesday requested support from the European Union to battle wildfires that have swept through a vast stretch of forested land.
The fires have been burning for six days, with Syrian emergency crews struggling to bring them under control amid strong winds and severe drought.
Neighbouring countries Jordan, Lebanon and Turkiye have already dispatched firefighting teams to assist in the response.
“We asked the European Union for help in extinguishing the fires,” minister Raed Al-Saleh said on X, adding Cyprus was expected to send aid on Tuesday.
“Fear of the fires spreading due to strong winds last night prompted us to evacuate 25 families to ensure their safety without any human casualties,” he added.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) office in Syria, the fires impacted “some 5,000 persons, including displacements, across 60 communities.”
An estimated 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) of forest and farmland — more than three percent of Syria’s forest cover — have burned, OCHA told AFP.
At least seven towns in Latakia province have been evacuated as a precaution.
Efforts to extinguish the fires have been hindered by “rugged terrain, the absence of firebreaks, strong winds, and the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance,” Saleh said.
Seven months after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, Syria continues to face the repercussions of its 14-year civil war, which include explosive remnants scattered across the country.
With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been battered by heatwaves and low rainfall.
In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Syria had “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years.”
Israel far-right minister demands end to Gaza ceasefire talks
- Minister calls for ‘total siege, military crushing, encouraging emigration (of Palestinians outside of Gaza), and (Israeli) settlement’ in the Gaza Strip
- Israel has been waging war on Hamas in Gaza for over 21 months, its troops gradually occupying more and more of the Palestinian territory
JERUSALEM: Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call back a delegation conducting indirect talks with Hamas in Qatar for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“I call on the Prime Minister to immediately recall the delegation that went to negotiate with the Hamas murderers in Doha,” Ben Gvir said in a post on X on the third day of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Instead, the minister who lives in a West Bank settlement called for “total siege, military crushing, encouraging emigration (of Palestinians outside of Gaza), and (Israeli) settlement” in the Gaza Strip.
He called these measures “the keys to total victory, not a reckless deal that would release thousands of terrorists and withdraw the (Israeli army) from areas captured with the blood of our soldiers.”
A Palestinian official close to the talks said on Tuesday that the talks were ongoing, with a focus on “the mechanisms for implementation, particularly the clauses related to withdrawal and humanitarian aid.”
Netanyahu traveled to Washington for his third visit since Trump’s return to power, where the US president on Monday voiced confidence that a deal could be reached.
The Israeli leader ruled out a full Palestinian state, insisting Israel would “always” keep security control over the Gaza Strip.
Israel has been waging war on Hamas in Gaza for over 21 months, its troops gradually occupying more and more of the Palestinian territory.
According to the UN, 82 percent of Gaza is now under Israeli military control or displacement orders.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The attack resulted in 1,219 deaths on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Of the 251 people abducted that day, 49 are still hostages in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli army.
At least 57,523 Gazans, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The figures are deemed reliable by the UN.
