US Imposes Sanctions On ‘Extremist’ Israeli Settler Group

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The United States unveiled further sanctions Tuesday against Israeli settlers over attacks on Palestinians and destruction of property in the West Bank.

The latest sanctions target the Hilltop Youth, which the US Treasury Department described as a “violent extremist group,” and comes amid soaring tensions in the region nearly a year after Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel.

The US sanctions follow similar moves targeting the group by Australia, Britain and the European Union.

“The worsening violence and instability in the West Bank are detrimental to the long-term interests of Israelis and Palestinians, and the actions of violent organizations like Hilltop Youth only exacerbate the crisis,” said Acting Treasury Under Secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Bradley Smith.

The West Bank — occupied by Israel since 1967 — has seen a significant spike in violence since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.

In the past year, the United States has issued a series of sanctions targeting Israeli settlers, while repeatedly voicing concern to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the West Bank violence.

It has however made little impact on the decision-making of the Israeli government, a hardline pro-settler coalition.

“Hilltop Youth has conducted a campaign of violence against Palestinians, engaging in killings, arson, assaults, and intimidation intended to drive Palestinian communities out of the West Bank,” the US Treasury said Tuesday.

Among other incidents, the Treasury cited an April 2024 attack on the Palestinian town of al-Mughayyir, where Hilltop Youth “set fire to homes, buildings, and vehicles, beat villagers, looted property, including livestock, and left one Palestinian dead.

The US State Department also announced it was designating two individuals: Eitan Yardeni, over his connection to violence or threats targeting civilians in the West Bank; and Avichai Suissa, who leads a group which provided support to previously sanctioned individuals.

AFP

Updated October 1, 2024 Rescue workers and firefighters surround a burnt-out bus that was carrying students and teachers on the outskirts of Bangkok on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Manan VATSYAYANA / AFP) Rescuers worked to recover children’s bodies from the charred wreckage of a Thai school bus Tuesday after an accident turned the vehicle into an inferno, with more than 20 feared dead. Advertisement A devastating blaze tore through the coach on a highway in a northern Bangkok suburb as it carried 38 children — ranging from kindergarten age to young teenagers — and six teachers on a school trip. The victims’ bodies were so badly burned that officials are unable to give a precise death toll yet, while identifying remains could take days. Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said 21 people escaped from the blaze but 23 are still unaccounted for and likely to be dead. Rescue workers put up screens around the wreckage to shield firefighters and investigators as they began recovering bodies. Advertisement “Some of the bodies we rescued were very, very small. They must have been very young in age,” Piyalak Thinkaew, who is leading the search, told reporters at the scene, adding that the fire started at the front of the bus. “The kids’ instinct was to escape to the back so the bodies were there,” he said. The bodies are so badly charred that it is hard to identify them, he said. Some of the children who survived suffered horrific burns to their faces, mouths and eyes, doctors treating them told local media. Advertisement The bus was one of three carrying children from Wat Khao Phraya Sangkharam school in the northern province of Uthai Thani on a field trip to a science museum in northern Bangkok. A video posted on the school’s Facebook page just hours before the tragedy shows the group of youngsters in orange uniform shirts stopping off at the ancient Thai capital of Ayyuthaya. The disaster began when one of the bus tyres burst on the highway around 12:30 pm (0530 GMT), sending it crashing into a barrier and triggering the inferno, rescuers said. Video footage from the scene showed flames engulfing the bus as it burned under an overpass, huge clouds of dense black smoke billowing into the sky. Advertisement – Poor road safety – Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said the government would pay for the survivors’ medical treatment and compensate the victims’ families. “As a mother, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families of the injured and deceased,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Meechai Sa-ard, a motorbike taxi driver, heard the noise of the incident from a kilometre (0.6 miles) away. “There was smoke everywhere. Poor children, I heard they were very little,” he told AFP. “I was hoping that god would be kind so that the rain could put the fire out and the kids would survive.” Thailand has one of the worst road safety records in the world, with unsafe vehicles and poor driving contributing to the high annual death toll. Around 20,000 people are killed every year on the kingdom’s roads, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) — more than 50 a day on average. The economic losses caused by traffic deaths and injuries amounted to around $15.5 billion in 2022 — more than three percent of GDP — the WHO says. AFP

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