White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday that “there are no plans to target with sanctions Israeli government officials at this time.” His comments came after US President Joe Biden signed an executive order imposing sanctions on four Israelis over “settler violence” in Judea and Samaria. The State Department named the four individuals who will be subject to the sanctions: David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, Shalom Zicherman, and Yinon Levi. "This was an initial set of designations, I'm not going to preview whether there will be more or not, but it is a new tool that we're going to take a look at using appropriately," Kirby said later on Thursday, according to Haaretz . "It's a signal to the world that President Biden takes settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank seriously. It's got to stop, it's unacceptable," he added. Related articles: Netanyahu arrives in Washington Netanyahu leaves for US to talk to Trump about tariffs Netanyahu may visit the US next week 15 Democrats back Sanders’ failed bid to block Israel arms sales State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said of the executive order, "Three of the four settlers sanctioned today have already been prosecuted in the Israeli system. We thought it was appropriate to take additional US action." Kirby’s comments also followed reports that the Biden administration considered including ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in the list of people to be sanctioned, but eventually decided to leave them out and focus at this stage on people who perpetrated attacks.
