AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Canadian Foreign Minister, Melanie Joly, said on Sunday that her country would impose sanctions on Zionist settlers who incite violence against Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Joly was cited by Reuters as saying that some settlers will be sanctioned but she refrained from making any remarks about the Zionist regime for its ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and deadly raids on the occupied West Bank.
The top Canadian diplomat, however, was quick to mention the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, and said Ottawa would come up with new sanctions against Hamas leaders, without mentioning their names.
Assaults by extremist Zionist settlers across the occupied Palestinian territories have seen a rapid increase over the past couple of years “under the political cover” of the Israeli regime.
A report released by Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor showed the number of settlers’ attacks in the first half of 2023 reached 1,148, nearly equaling the total number of attacks recorded in the entire previous year.
Last Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced that Canada is considering imposing sanctions on extremist Zionist settlers in the West Bank.
“We have been investigating the perpetrators of extreme violence or the extreme settlers in the West Bank”, he said.
The Canadian plan followed an announcement on Thursday by the US Treasury Department that it imposed sanctioned on four Israeli settlers after Joe Biden issued an executive order targeting "those who undermine peace, security and stability in the West Bank."
According to the US Treasury, sanctions freeze the assets of these people and prohibit them from entering the US.
Recently, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also called on the Israeli regime to take more measures to stop settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
This is while, Israel keep widening settlements on occupied Palestinian land with the green light from the United States. Israel often bulldozes Palestinian homes and structures to grab more land to expand settler units in the West Bank
All Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law and the Geneva Convention.
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