Belgium announced Thursday that it will impose sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
According to the country’s media, Belgium Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said: “Belgium condemns settlements and has decided to impose sanctions on violent settlers”
She stated this during her visit to the West Bank hamlet of Mazra’ah Al Qibliyah.
“These settlements are illegal under international law,” she said.
In Ramallah, Lahbib also had meetings with Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Palestinian enclave since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed.
Over 32,500 Palestinians have since been killed and over 74,900 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli army has also imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving most of the population, particularly residents of the north, on the verge of starvation.
The Israeli war, now in its 174th day, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice.
An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
