Canada is considering imposing sanctions on "extremist" Israeli settlers in the West Bank, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, a day after the Biden administration issued an executive order against them.
"We are looking into how to make sure that those responsible for extremist violence or extreme settler violence in the West Bank are held to account for it," Trudeau told reporters in Waterloo, Ontario.
Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It has built Jewish settlements there that are deemed illegal under international law.
The West Bank had already seen its highest levels of unrest in decades during the 18 months before Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and confrontations there have risen sharply since Israeli forces launched their retaliatory offensive on Gaza.
"Violence in the West Bank is absolutely unacceptable and puts at risk peace, stability in the region and the path towards the two-state solution that is absolutely essential," Trudeau said.
Trudeau's comments add to signs of the West's growing displeasure with the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order that aims to punish ill-behaved Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians envisage a future state.
Britain, the European Union and more than a dozen partner countries including Australia and Canada have called on Israel to take immediate and concrete steps to tackle settler violence in the West Bank.
The Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip in response Oct. 7 attack has killed over 27,000, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry and flattened most of the densely populated enclave.
Trudeau has consistently said Israel has the right to defend itself after the Hamas assault, but has gradually hardened his tone as the civilian death toll in Gaza has mounted amid a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, in which people are left without homes, shelter, food, electricity and water.
