NNA - Australia on Thursday imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on seven Israeli colonists and a youth group it said had been involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The group was responsible for inciting and perpetrating violence against Palestinians, while the settlers had been involved in beatings, sexual assault and torture and in some cases death, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement published by Reuters.

"We call on Israel to hold perpetrators of settler violence to account and to cease its ongoing settlement activity, which only inflames tensions and further undermines stability and prospects for a two-state solution," Wong said in a statement.

The move by the Australian government comes after allies Britain, the United States, Canada and Japan sanctioned some Israeli colonists in response to the violence in the West Bank.

Violent acts by some Israeli colonists in the West Bank have increased since Ocotber 7th, amid Israel's aggression against Gaza, killing seven Palestinians and committing 1334 acts of violence. ---WAFA

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