Western Sanctions on Settlements Trigger Israeli Diplomatic Retaliation

Over the past week, a wave of Western nations announced forthcoming sanctions targeting Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israel responded swiftly and aggressively: on September 9, it gave the United Kingdom 30 days to close its consulate in occupied East Jerusalem.

As Israel doubled down on its international defiance, such diplomatic measures did little to curb the ongoing dispossession of Palestinian land and identity in Jerusalem and the West Bank, nor to halt the deterioration of basic conditions in Gaza.

International sanctions prompt aggressive Israeli response

Twelve countries, including the UK, France, and Canada, announced on September 8 that they would introduce, support, or consider restrictions on Israeli settlement goods. Britain’s Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told parliament the government could no longer “stand by” in the face of what he described as “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians… perpetrated by settler terrorists”.

Israel retaliated within 24 hours, ordering the closure of the UK consulate, ending British training of Palestinian Authority security forces, removing British staff from the Gaza coordination centre in Kiryat Gat, and barring 12 British public figures — including 11 members of parliament.

The crackdown extended inward as well: Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar announced plans to revoke the citizenship of filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, following their documentary “NAZA” — which highlights Israel’s use of AI targeting systems in Gaza — winning a Special Jury Prize at Venice and receiving a 25-minute standing ovation. Zohar called the film “vile” and accused its creators of “treason”.

Gaza: a week of attacks amid a health system nearing collapse

Visiting Ireland this week, US President Trump insisted “there’s very little happening right now in Gaza”. Each day told a starkly different story: attacks on Palestinians added to the Strip’s mounting death toll amid widespread destruction, while humanitarian conditions worsened without relief.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on September 12 that if European countries accepted 20,000 to 30,000 Gaza residents each, “this entire issue would be resolved”. With no such mass displacement underway, airstrikes on Gaza continued daily.

Following two days of multiple air raids wounding women and children, Israeli warplanes killed a family of four — father, mother, and two daughters — in the Beit Lahia housing project on September 10. Israel alleged the father was involved in attacks. The next day, a drone strike near the Sumoud camp in Khan Younis killed Jihad Ismail, 33, and wounded 12 others.

On September 12, a pregnant woman, Iman Shalouf, 27, died from wounds sustained days earlier from Israeli gunfire south of Khan Younis. The following day, an airstrike on a vehicle in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood killed two Palestinians and wounded 13. On September 14, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah. That same day, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported the cumulative toll since October 2023 had reached 73,786 killed and 174,771 wounded, with 1,372 killed since the prior October “ceasefire”.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s health and transport systems edged closer to collapse. Al-Ahli Arab Hospital reported its main generator had failed due to a lack of oil and spare parts, suspending its imaging department — including the only functioning CT scanner in northern Gaza. On September 13, Gaza’s public bus operators’ union announced it would suspend transport for doctors and nurses starting September 16 due to a shortage of replacement parts and fuel; the Health Ministry called it “a death sentence” for patient care.

The latest data from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) found that since March, only 13,445 litres of engine oil had been approved by Israel for entry into Gaza, against nearly 93,000 litres pending — oil critically needed to keep water, sanitation, and hospital generators running.

‘De facto annexation’

The diplomatic rupture over settlements was matched this week by a convergence of reports from NGOs and international bodies reaching similar conclusions about conditions in the West Bank.

Israeli rights groups Yesh Din, Bimkom, and HaMoked concluded in a joint report that land seizures, settler violence, and movement restrictions “form a continuous process” amounting to “de facto annexation.” The B’Tselem report describes “the growing role of settler militias operating in coordination and cooperation with official forces”, working towards the same end even when not acting together directly. This week’s daily incidents illustrated those dynamics in plain view.

On September 12, in Faqua near Jenin, a soldier was filmed shooting Qassem Hussam in the leg during a settler incursion onto Palestinian land. Israeli army radio itself said the shooting was carried out “contrary to orders” against a man who “posed no threat”, as the ongoing pogrom against Palestinians in the West Bank continued.

A similar pattern unfolded on September 11, when Palestinian field activists reported that settlers beat five men with metal pipes on the Ramallah-Jericho road, fracturing one man’s knee; no soldiers intervened despite the road running through an area with heavy army presence.

Elsewhere, Israeli forces carried out the violence. On September 13, forces shot and wounded two Palestinian labourers in Beit Jala, according to WAFA. On September 14, forces wounded a young man in Beit Ula near Hebron while setting his vehicle on fire, and separately arrested men in Beit Ummar and Dura, according to WAFA.

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