The USA is reportedly delaying the sale of M16 assault rifles to Israel due to Israeli settler violence in the West Bank.
Citing US officials familiar with the matter, US media reported on Wednesday that the sale of 20,000 US-made M16 rifles is being sent to the State Department for an additional review.
The Biden administration does not feel confident the Israeli government is doing enough to crack down on extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
The report underscored that officials within the administration “need more assurances” from the Israeli government that it will do enough to curb the violence in the West Bank.
The pullback on the weapons sale came several weeks after an agreement had been struck between Israeli and American officials that none of the rifles would be given to civilian security teams established within border villages near Gaza.
The civilian teams are intended to act as first responders in the event of a terror attack, and are trained by Israeli police.
However, concerns were spiked within the Biden White House after officials caught wind of a report alleging Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, issued an order for police to not arrest any violent settlers in the region.
The Wednesday report comes on the heels of a decision by the US to officially impose visa restrictions against any individual believed to have engaged in violence in the West Bank.
Reports have indicated that Zionist settler violence has more than doubled since the October 7 surprise one day attack by Hamas.
The Biden administration is planning to issue visa bans on an undisclosed number of Israeli settlers committing violence in the West Bank, US Media reports.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and members of his war cabinet that the United States would take action against the settlers on its own.
Settlements are Israeli properties built on occupied Palestinian lands, primarily based in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.
The vast majority of settlements are built on land either wholly or partially privately owned by Palestinians and are illegal under international law and under the Oslo Accords signed by the Israeli government.
Still, in 2017, the Israeli government announced that it formally started authorizing new settlements.
Since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the settlement population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has increased from a quarter million to nearly 700,000 by September of this year.
A State Department official told US media under the condition of anonymity that Washington requested that Israel prosecute the perpetrators but has yet to see movement towards that. The official said the bans could come in the next few weeks.
Sputnik / ABC Flash Point WW II News 2023.
They are not “Settlers”; they are Fascist Juz. The U.S. is complicit in all Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians. It is doubling down on lies to justify war crimes. The Jew Antony Blinken went to Israel to consult with Netanyahu and attack the Palestinians again. Since 07 October 2023, more than 17000 innocent Palestinian civilians, including 6500 children, have been needlessly killed. A Palestinian child/baby is dying every ten minutes, slowly and agonizingly beneath the rubble of what used to be her home, hardly matters to Western politicians/Congressmen and their Zionist media. The Jews have turned Gaza hospitals into… Read more »
What more proof does the west and armeika need when the minister of national security states this? in order to impose a ceasefire with UN peacekeepers in the entire Palestine territory designated by UN in 1947. A former especial army reservist told me that he could shoot an Palestinian in Gaza whilst on duty in the 2000’s for simply speeding in a car. All that was required was put the dead body in a body bag with label stating the date ,reason- driving suspiciously. Now it is worst allegedly any (illegal) settler can shoot a civilian and are doing so.… Read more »