Australia Imposes Sanctions on Israeli Youth Group, Settlers over West Bank Violence

FILE Photo: Australian Federal Police officers detain a suspect in Sydney - AFP
FILE Photo: Australian Federal Police officers detain a suspect in Sydney - AFP
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Australia Imposes Sanctions on Israeli Youth Group, Settlers over West Bank Violence

FILE Photo: Australian Federal Police officers detain a suspect in Sydney - AFP
FILE Photo: Australian Federal Police officers detain a suspect in Sydney - AFP

Australia on Thursday imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on seven Israeli settlers and a youth group it said had been involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The group was responsible for inciting and perpetrating violence against Palestinians, while the settlers had been involved in beatings, sexual assault and torture and in some cases death, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement.

"We call on Israel to hold perpetrators of settler violence to account and to cease its ongoing settlement activity, which only inflames tensions and further undermines stability and prospects for a two-state solution," Wong said, Reuters reported.

The move by the Australian government comes after allies Britain, the United States, Canada and Japan sanctioned some Israeli settlers in response to the violence in the West Bank.

Violent acts by some Israeli settlers in the West Bank have increased amid Israel's war in Gaza, sparked by an attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct. 7.

Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal but Israel disputes this and cites historical and Biblical ties to the land.

Australia considers Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories illegal and an obstacle to peace.



Ukraine Says Too Soon to Talk Peacekeeper Numbers

Service members of pro-Russian troops drive an armoured vehicle along a street past a destroyed residential building during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk Region, Ukraine May 26, 2022. The writing on the vehicle reads: "Valkyrie". (Reuters)
Service members of pro-Russian troops drive an armoured vehicle along a street past a destroyed residential building during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk Region, Ukraine May 26, 2022. The writing on the vehicle reads: "Valkyrie". (Reuters)
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Ukraine Says Too Soon to Talk Peacekeeper Numbers

Service members of pro-Russian troops drive an armoured vehicle along a street past a destroyed residential building during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk Region, Ukraine May 26, 2022. The writing on the vehicle reads: "Valkyrie". (Reuters)
Service members of pro-Russian troops drive an armoured vehicle along a street past a destroyed residential building during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk Region, Ukraine May 26, 2022. The writing on the vehicle reads: "Valkyrie". (Reuters)

The Ukrainian government's talks with its partners on possible foreign military contingents in Ukraine are in their "very early stages", and it is too soon to talk specific numbers, a spokesman for Kyiv's foreign ministry said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

"Yes, the discussion is ongoing about...the military contingents of foreign powers, foreign nations that can be potentially deployed to Ukraine," Heorhii Tykhyi told reporters in Kyiv.

"This discussion is in its very early stages."