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US President Joe Biden is a staunch supporter of Israel [Matt Rourke/AP Photo]

Washington, DC - The United States has imposed sanctions on several Israeli settlers for attacking Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, accusing them of undermining stability and security in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The announcement on Thursday comes amid increasing pressure on President Joe Biden over his unwavering support for Israel's war on Gaza as he campaigns for re-election in November.

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The sanctions target David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil and Yinon Levi, who are accused of assaulting and intimidating Palestinians. They also target Shalom Zickerman, who is accused of assaulting Israeli activists.

The sanctions will freeze the individuals' assets in the US and restrict financial dealings with them.

Earlier, Axios reported that the Biden administration had considered sanctioning ultranationalist government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, but decided against the move.

"There are no plans to target with sanctions Israeli government officials at this time," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday, adding that the US informed the Israeli government before announcing the sanctions.

The White House also announced a new decree to penalise perpetrators of "extremist settler violence" in the West Bank.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement that settler violence "poses a grave threat to peace, security, and stability in the West Bank, Israel, and the Middle East region, and threatens the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States".

The executive order coincides with Biden's visit on Thursday to Michigan, a Midwestern swing state that is home to a large Arab American community.

Netanyahu responds

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to reject the US move, saying that the overwhelming majority of West Bank settlers are "law-abiding citizens".

"Israel acts against all Israelis who break the law, everywhere; therefore, exceptional measures are unnecessary," his office said in a statement.

Reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford cited Palestinians as saying that Israeli authorities do not hold settlers accountable for attacks.

"In many, many incidents, we see settlers acting with either the tacit support or the actual physical support of the Israeli military in these attacks," Stratford said.

The announcement comes as the Biden administration continues to work to secure $14bn in additional aid to the Israeli government, whose forces often accompany and protect settlers during their attacks on Palestinians.

Israeli authorities rarely prosecute suspects in violence against Palestinians. Last month, Israeli settlers and an off-duty police officer fatally shot 17-year-old Palestinian American Tawfiq Ajaq in the West Bank, according to his family.

The Biden administration has called for an investigation into the case, but Israeli authorities have not made any arrests in the killing of the US teenager.

Raids by Israeli settlers and soldiers against West Bank towns and villages have increased since the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7, killing hundreds of Palestinians.

"This [executive order] will allow the United States to issue financial sanctions against those directing or participating in certain actions, including acts or threats of violence against civilians, intimidating civilians to cause them to leave their homes, destroying or seizing property, or engaging in terrorist activity in the West Bank," Sullivan said.

In the same statement, the US national security adviser emphasised Washington's support for what he called "Israel's right to defend itself".

Despite growing calls for a ceasefire globally, and mounting evidence of Israeli abuses, the Biden administration has pushed on with its support for the war on Gaza, arguing that Hamas must be eliminated.

Washington says it has been in discussions with Israel to minimise civilian casualties and allow more aid into Gaza. But Biden has so far resisted calls to use his administration's assistance to Israel as leverage to pressure the US ally to end rights violations against Palestinians.

Israeli leaders - including Netanyahu - have been openly defying the Biden administration in their vocal rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"Good that Biden will impose targeted sanctions on Israeli settlers who attack Palestinians," human rights advocate Kenneth Roth wrote in a social media post.

"Now how about conditioning [or stopping] military aid and arms sales to Israel until it stops bombing and besieging Palestinian civilians in Gaza."

CAIR urges targeting Israeli officials

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group, also played down the significance of the sanctions, saying that Biden should penalise Israeli officials responsible for settler violence and end US support for the war on Gaza.

"It makes no sense for the Biden administration to oppose killing Palestinian civilians in the West Bank while enabling the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza," CAIR said in a statement.

For his part, Abed Ayoub, executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), called the sanctions "empty", saying that they are far from groundbreaking.

Ayoub said the White House sees the sanctions as a "safe way" to appeal to some voters who are angry over Biden's backing for the war on Gaza.

"That's the intent of all of this. That's why it was released today during Biden's trip to Michigan," Ayoub told Al Jazeera.

He added that targeting a few individual settlers risks normalising the broader settlement movement and called for stricter measures to ensure accountability.

"We know that many of these settlers are American. Open those settlers up the civil and criminal liability in the US," he said.

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US sanctions four Israeli settlers over West Bank violence

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White House says settler violence in occupied West Bank threatens US 'national security and foreign policy interests'.

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Here Al jazeera uses informative vocabulary by writing true facts. They want to draw readers' attention to the word "four" because it is important. Obviously, the purpose of is to express discontent towards those involved in the violent acts (Israeli settlers). In the photo, we see US President Joe Biden being aggressive and prone to violence maybe towars Israeli settlers. Their target audience is mainly Middle East, but anyone can freely read this news.

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President Joe Biden issued an executive order Thursday targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank following the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old American citizen last month.

Biden's order will target settlers who "directly perpetrated violence, and those who have engaged in repeated acts of intimidation property destruction, leading to the forced displacement of Palestinian communities," according to a senior administration official. The sanctions are focused on visa restrictions for foreign nationals, some of whom have already been prosecuted in the Israeli justice system.

Sanctions do not address American citizens who may also perpetrate settler violence.

The decision was made following the death of American teenager, Tawfic Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, who was shot and killed last month during a visit to the West Bank to learn more about his Palestinian heritage. His family says he was the victim of settler violence.

Abdel Jabbar's father said his son was out for a picnic with friends when witnesses told him that the 17-year-old was shot by an Israeli settler. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said at the time that he was unaware of the full context but that the White House was "seriously concerned" over the teen's death.

Over 300 Palestinians have been killed by security forces and settlers across the occupied West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, separate from the thousands who have been killed in Gaza, according to data from the United Nations.

There have been 494 recorded settler attacks against Palestinians from Oct. 7 to Jan. 31, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The State Department said in December that would be imposing a travel ban on some settlers after a spate of attacks by settlers.

Spokesperson Matt Miller said the visa ban would be imposed on "dozens" of extremist Israeli settlers and their family members. It's unclear how many people have been impacted by the ban.

"The United States has consistently opposed actions that undermine stability in the West Bank, including attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, and Palestinian attacks against Israelis," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement at the time.

"We have underscored to the Israeli government the need to do more to hold accountable extremist settlers who have committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank. As President Biden has repeatedly said, those attacks are unacceptable," he added.

As violence in the settlements continued, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated last month that Biden was concerned about "violence in the West Bank, and that being perpetrated largely by settlers with extreme views and how much he absolutely opposes that those that violence needs to stop."

Benjamin Smotrich, Israel's finance minister and chairman of the far-right Religious Zionist party, called settler violence an "anti-semitic lie" in a post on X on Thursday.

"It's a shame that the Biden government cooperates with this in the days when the settlers are paying a dear blood price of the best of their sons in the war in Gaza," Smotrich wrote, according to an NBC News translation.

He went on to say that he will continue to develop Jewish settlements and that "if the price is the imposition of American sanctions on me - so be it."

Israeli settlers have called for the re-occupation of Gaza in recent days, gathering at a conference on Sunday where National Security Minister Ben Gvir said that Israel should encourage "voluntary migration" of Palestinians out of the region. Smotrich was also a keynote speaker at the event and has made public statements urging the resettlement of Gaza.

The Gaza Strip has been devoid of Israeli settlers since 2005, when then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Knesset agreed to withdraw all Israeli presence.

The White House and State Department have publicly condemned the calls for resettlement, firmly asserting the U.S. belief that Gaza should remain Palestinian land.

But settlements have continued to grow in the occupied West Bank bringing increased tensions with Palestinians, resulting in years of violent clashes. Since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and the resulting war, settler violence has been nearly omnipresent in the West Bank.

In the three weeks following the outbreak of war, the United Nations recorded 132 Palestinians were killed by security forces and settlers. The number for the entire year in 2022 was 158 Palestinians, NBC News previously reported.

From the start of the war until Jan. 31, the vast majority of Palestinians killed in the settlement areas were by Israeli forces, but at least eight were killed by the settlers themselves. In contrast, six Israelis were killed in the West Bank, four of whom were Israeli forces members, in that time frame.

The United Nations reported on Monday that two international activists were injured by armed settlers in the Umm Nir area in Masafer Yatta, southern West Bank last week.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 26,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which left 1,200 dead.

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Biden to sanction Israeli settlers in the West Bank after spate of violence against Palestinians

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President Joe Biden issued an executive order Thursday targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank following the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old American citizen last month.

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Here NBC News uses informative vocabulary but is not clarifying how many settlers there were. They write the Israeli settlers first showed violece against the palestinians, after which sanctions were imposed on them. In the photo, we see women and man comforting the mother of a 17-year old boy at a funureal at the West Bank. Basically, it demonstrates the empathy and compassion towards Palestine nation and some aggression towards Israel. They do not have specific target audience, basically everyone can read the article.