New Zealand has joined Australia and the EU in imposing travel bans on three Israelis accused of using violence to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, intensifying international pressure over increasing attacks on Palestinians.
Wellington's Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Tuesday the ban targets three individuals who had "actively worked to expand illegal settlements in the West Bank, including through violence."
The restrictions will prevent them from traveling to New Zealand.
Peters said the action aligns Wellington with partners, including Australia and the EU and reflects concerns that settler violence is undermining prospects for peace and security.
"These travel bans are targeted at three individuals who have actively worked to expand illegal settlements in the West Bank, including through violence," Peters said.
He added that the measures were directed at specific individuals rather than the Israeli people or government.
The move comes as international scrutiny of settler violence intensifies. U.N. experts recently warned that attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory have reached alarming levels, creating what they described as a growing risk of forced displacement.
According to the experts, repeated assaults, intimidation, destruction of property and restrictions on access to land are making it increasingly difficult for Palestinian communities to remain in their homes.
U.N. experts warned settler violence has become systematic in some areas of the occupied West Bank, posing an "existential threat” to Palestinian communities and accelerating displacement pressures.
The experts called on the international community to take urgent action to protect civilians and uphold international law.
New Zealand first imposed travel bans on occupiers in February 2024 and has since aligned with a broader group of Western partners taking measures against individuals linked to settler violence and illegal settlement expansion.
Even on Tuesday, Israeli settlers set fire to two vehicles belonging to Palestinians, attacked three children and wrote racist slogans on the walls and doors of several houses in separate incidents in occupied West Bank.
The settlers wrote racist slogans in Hebrew on several house walls and doors during a raid on the village of Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah, before withdrawing from the area, local sources told Turkish Anadolu Agency (AA).
The village of Umm Safa is repeatedly subjected to attacks carried out by occupiers from illegal Israeli settlements and outposts established on Palestinian land in the area, according to the sources.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers attacked and injured three Palestinian children and set fire to agricultural land near the Shilo settlement south of Nablus and hurled stones directly at it, injuring three children inside.
The sources said the family is from the town of Abwein north of Ramallah and that the injured children were transferred to a medical center in the town of Sinjil for treatment.
One of the children, aged 14, suffered a moderate head injury after being struck by a stone, while the two younger children sustained minor injuries from shattered glass, the sources added.
In separate incidents, occupiers set fire to Palestinian agricultural land in the Ramallah and Nablus governorates.
Local sources said occupiers torched olive groves between the towns of Turmus Ayya and Abu Falah northeast of Ramallah.
They added that Israeli forces raided the area and provided protection for the occupiers after local residents confronted them and forced them to withdraw. The forces also prevented civil defense crews from reaching the scene to extinguish the fire.
In the village of Duma south of Nablus, occupiers also set fire to agricultural land planted with olive trees near the village entrance, causing damage to several trees.
The occupiers grazed herds of camels and sheep on Palestinian farmland east of the villages of Taybeh and Rammun near Ramallah, causing extensive damage to crops and financial losses to Palestinian farmers.
Israel has escalated incursions and brutally treated Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since launching military attacks on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 8, 2023.
Palestinians view the escalation, which includes killings, arrests, displacement, and settlement expansion, as a step toward the formal annexation of their territories.
