Five of the United States’ long-time allies — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom — announced Tuesday that they were jointly imposing sanctions on two senior Israeli officials, far-right nationalists who are members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.
In a statement posted on the U.K. government’s official website, the foreign ministers of all five nations said Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich were being sanctioned “for inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.”
The sanctions were not laid out in detail, but could include bans on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir entering the U.S. allies’ territory, and the freezing of some foreign-held assets.
“Settler violence is incited by extremist rhetoric which calls for Palestinians to be driven from their homes, encourages violence and human rights abuses and fundamentally rejects the two-state solution. Settler violence has led to the deaths of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of whole communities,” the statement said. “Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights. Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements is appalling and dangerous. These actions are not acceptable. We have engaged the Israeli Government on this issue extensively, yet violent perpetrators continue to act with encouragement and impunity. This is why we have taken this action now — to hold those responsible to account.”
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The countries said that while the sanctions announced Tuesday “focus on the West Bank,” Israel’s actions there “cannot be seen in isolation from the catastrophe in Gaza. We continue to be appalled by the immense suffering of civilians, including the denial of essential aid.”
The five nations said the measures “do not deviate from our unwavering support for Israel’s security and we continue to condemn the horrific terror attacks of 7 October by Hamas,” adding that in their view, the rhetoric of the two Israeli cabinet members also undermines “Israel’s own security and its standing in the world.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the sanctions on Tuesday.
“These sanctions do not advance U.S.-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war. We reject any notion of equivalence: Hamas is a terrorist organization that committed unspeakable atrocities, continues to hold innocent civilians hostage, and prevents the people of Gaza from living in peace,” Rubio said in a statement. “We remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is. The United States urges the reversal of the sanctions and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.”
The sanctions were announced as the Palestinian Red Crescent in the Israeli-occupied West Bank said 80 people were injured Tuesday during Israel’s ongoing military operations in the Palestinian territory, in the town of Nablus, specifically. Israel insists its military operations in the West Bank are necessary to root out terrorists who plan and launch attacks from the territory.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Tuesday that the Israeli officials had used “horrendous extremist language” and that he’d “encourage the Israeli government to disavow and condemn that language.”
Last month, Smotrich said Gaza “will be entirely destroyed” and that civilians “will start to leave in great numbers to third countries.” He has repeatedly called for Israel to completely annex the West Bank, which has long been occupied by Israeli forces.
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CBS News has met Palestinian residents and Israeli activists in the West Bank who say violent attacks by Israeli settlers have increased significantly since the war in Gaza began, including attacks that have driven people from their land.
The statement published Tuesday by the British Foreign Ministry said there had been more than 1,900 “attacks against Palestinian civilians since January last year” in the territory.
Smotrich said in a social media post that he’d heard about the sanctions as he attended the inauguration of a new settlement in the West Bank on Tuesday. Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, which are illegal under international law, have flourished over the last two years, and Smotrich said Tuesday: “We are determined to continue building.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the sanctions “outrageous.” He said he’d discussed the measures with Netanyahu, and that Israel would decide upon its response next week.
Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack, who has spent years campaigning for international sanctions against Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, told The Associated Press that Tuesday’s move was “historic,” but that it was “unbelievable that it took so long for Western governments to sanction Israeli politicians — and the fact that it’s being done while Trump is president is quite amazing.”
“It is a message to Netanyahu himself that he could be next,” Mack told the AP.
All of the nations behind the new sanctions are closely allied with the U.S., and three of them are fellow members of the NATO alliance. Australia and New Zealand are not NATO members, but they work closely with the U.S. through the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing alliance, along with the U.K. and Canada.
More Palestinians reportedly killed near U.S.-backed group’s aid hub
While the negotiations drag on, the war raging in Gaza continues to take a steep daily toll in Palestinian lives.
The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Tuesday that more than 30 people had been killed around two of the controversial, U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave. Witnesses said the victims were shot, echoing accounts of numerous previous incidents around the GHF’s four operational distribution hubs in Gaza.
The Israeli military said it was aware of reports of people being injured in the area, and that the details were under review.
Soldiers “fired warning shots hundreds of meters from the aid distribution site” in question before it opened on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
The shots were fired “toward suspects who posed a threat to the troops,” according to the IDF.
Israel does not allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza, so it was difficult to determine what actually happened on Tuesday, as it has been in all of the previous reported killings near the GHF hubs.
The GHF, in a daily note on its operations sent to media outlets, said: “Aid distribution at both sites proceeded without incident” on Tuesday.
The U.S.-based group’s aid centers, which are staffed by armed, private American contractors, are located adjacent to heavily militarized zones in the Gaza Strip, which the IDF has declared off-limits to civilians from dusk to dawn.
CBS News’ local team in Gaza has reported widespread confusion among families trying to seek aid at the hubs. Residents have told CBS News that it is often unclear which of the four aid hubs are open at any given time. Large crowds have gathered near the hubs in the overnight hours, with people hoping to be first in line for food distribution, which can start as early as 6 a.m. local time.
Nevertheless, video has shown steady streams of people leaving the centers with sacks containing aid, including dried lentils and cooking oil.
Virtually no one in Gaza has gas left to power stoves, however, so families have been burning trash, including plastic, to cook with. Many of the dry goods in the GHF aid parcels are inedible unless they’re cooked.
Trump says Iran involved in talks with Hamas and Israel
President Trump told reporters at a White House event on Monday night that Iran is involved in negotiations between Hamas and the U.S. and Israel aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages from the Palestinian territory.
“Gaza right now is in the midst of a massive negotiation between us and Hamas and Israel, and Iran actually is involved,” he said. He didn’t offer any further details, but said: “We’ll see what’s going to happen with Gaza. We want to get the hostages back.”
The U.S. has long been engaged in ongoing negotiations in Qatar aimed at brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but there has been no indication of an imminent breakthrough in those talks, though Netanyahu said in a video message Tuesday that the dialogue had advanced.
Iran has never been mentioned by the U.S. previously as a party to the talks, and no member of Netanyahu’s government has ever acknowledged engaging in negotiations with Iran. Israeli media outlets cited anonymous officials on Tuesday as denying any discussion with Iran, but there was no on-the-record statement from Netanyahu’s government about Mr. Trump’s remarks, which came after a telephone call between the two leaders earlier on Tuesday.
Netanyahu and Mr. Trump reportedly discussed the separate talks the U.S. has been holding with Iranian negotiators aimed at striking a new deal to impose limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the easing of crushing economic sanctions. Those talks are due to resume toward the end of this week, either in Oman or Oslo, but thus far the Iranian government has said the country will not agree to abandon entirely its domestic enrichment of uranium, something the White House continues to insist on publicly.
Israel strikes Houthi-held port in Yemen
Israel’s navy has also stepped up its attacks on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, firing two missiles at Houthi-held port facilities in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, the IDF said Tuesday.
The military said the strikes were carried out to “stop the use of the port for military purposes,” including the movement of weapons.
Hodeida’s docks have been attacked in the past by Israel’s air force, and the strikes were meant as a fresh warning to the Houthis to stop firing missiles at Israel. On average, the rebels have launched a missile at Israel every other day for several months. Almost all have disintegrated in the air or been intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said if the attacks don’t stop, Israel will impose a complete air and sea blockade on Houthi territory in Yemen, not unlike the one Israel is currently imposing on Gaza.
“We warned the Houthi terror organization that if they continue to fire at Israel, they will face a powerful response and enter a naval and air blockade,” said Katz.
The Houthis did not offer any assessment of the damage inflicted by the Israeli strike, and there was no video evidence immediately broadcast by the group’s own satellite news outlet.