France will impose measures on Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinians in the occupied West Bank territory, the country’s foreign minister said on Monday, a day after meeting Palestinian farmers in Ramallah who have been targeted in recent weeks.
Figures from the United Nations (UN) show that daily settler attacks have more than doubled since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7 and the subsequent attack on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed in violence this year, including in settler attacks.
“We will not accept these acts. France will not wait any longer. We call on the Israeli authorities to put an end to this and we will take national action against certain radical Israeli settlers,” Catherine Colonna said at a press conference in Beirut after a two-day visit to Israel, Ramallah and Lebanon.
The European Union is studying the possibility of sanctions against violent Jewish settlers.
“This land is Palestinian and will be part of a Palestinian state,” she said.
Colonna was in Beirut this Monday to meet with Lebanese authorities, with Unifil, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, and pass messages to Hezbollah, supported by Iran.
Paris hopes to broker some kind of agreement with its partners to ensure that all sides comply with the terms of Security Council resolution 1701, which prohibits the presence of any armed faction between Lebanon’s Litani River and the border.
“Neither side is implementing the resolution. Both sides accepted it,” she said. “We need to engage in a form of de-escalation. We cannot continue like this without a serious risk of escalation,” she said, without saying whether either side was willing to take action.
By John Irish