UK announces new sanctions against Israeli settlers
Britain has announced new sanctions against three “illegal settler outposts” and four groups accused of committing violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that Israeli government “inaction … has allowed an environment of impunity to flourish where settler violence has been allowed to increase unchecked”.
The sanctions are the third imposed by London targeting those involved in settler violence since February. The organisations listed are the religious school Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, the Hashomer Yosh NGO, the charity Torat Lechima and Amana, a construction company.
The settlements are the Tirzah Valley Farm Outpost, Meitarim Outpost, and Shuvi Eretz Outpost.
UK’s foreign secretary comments on Israeli settler violence ‘hugely symbolic'
The UK is sanctioning four organisations that promote settler expansion and that are accused of promoting settler violence. They can no longer raise funds in the UK or hold public events. Canada has taken similar steps in the past few months.
But when you consider the fact that the Israeli government’s programme considers Israeli settlement expansion to have high national value and is investing millions of dollars in expanding settlements, which are illegal under international law, you begin to wonder: What does [UK Foreign Secretary] David Lammy mean when he’s accusing the Israeli government of inaction?
US hands out sanctions to pro-Palestinian group Samidoun
The United States has imposed sanctions on what it says is a key international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The US Treasury Department, in an action taken with Canada, accused the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network of being “a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser” for the PFLP.
Founded by George Habash in 1967, the PFLP is a secular Marxist-Leninist political group and part of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It is the second-largest group in the PLO after Fatah.
The group’s armed wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, has fought Israel in Gaza alongside Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). It is designated a “terrorist organisation” by several Western countries, including the US. The US Treasury said the PFLP uses Samidoun to fundraise in Europe and North America.
US tells Israel to improve Gaza’s humanitarian situation or risk legal action: Report
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have told Israel it must take steps in the next month to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza to avoid legal action involving US military aid, according to news reports and sources.
“We are writing now to underscore the US government’s deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory,” they wrote in an October 13 letter to their Israeli counterparts, posted by an Axios reporter on X on Tuesday.
A reporter for Israeli News 12 first reported the contents of the letter on X. Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed the letter’s veracity to Reuters news agency.
The US Department of State and Pentagon did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the letter. Representatives for Israel’s government also could not be immediately reached for comment.
Remember, before Oct 7 with Gaza still having agriculture etc, avg 500 trucks went in daily, 15,000 monthly.
To halt the famine, at least 800 trucks daily are needed to get back to sustainable levels.
