UK to impose sanctions on two Israeli ministers over Gaza comments

Euronews

a day ago

The United Kingdom is placing sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced on Tuesday.
Lammy said the ministers had "incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights."
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir will have their assets frozen and face travel bans, a move that is expected to be matched by other international allies as well.
In a statement, the UK Foreign Office said they are acting "alongside partners Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway."
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called it an "unacceptable decision" and said the cabinet will meet next week to decide on a response.
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have repeatedly called for Israel to conquer Gaza and re-establish Jewish settlements there.
Last month, Smotrich said "Gaza will be entirely destroyed" and has campaigned against allowing aid into the territory. Ben-Gvir has also called for the permanent resettlement of Palestinians from the territory.
Referring to the construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank, Smotrich said in a post on X that "Britain has already tried once to prevent us from settling the cradle of our homeland, and we will not allow it to do it again. We are determined to continue building."
"Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements is appalling and dangerous,' the statement from the UK Foreign Office said.
It also said that "the rising violence and intimidation by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities in the West Bank must stop."
Settlement growth and construction in the occupied West Bank have been promoted by successive Israeli governments stretching back decades, but it has exploded under Netanyahu's far-right coalition, which has settlers in key Cabinet posts.
There are now well over 100 settlements and around 500,000 Israeli settlers sprawling across the area.
Rights groups argue that the settlements, illegal under international law, are a hurdle to an eventual two-state solution.
In 2024, 19.5 million children in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, according to the latest Eurostat figures.
Between 2023 and 2024, the percentage of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU slightly decreased from 24.8% to 24.2%.
At the country level, Bulgaria reported the highest rates in 2024, at 35.1%, followed by Spain at 34.6% and Romania at 33.8%.
By contrast, Slovenia (11.8%), Cyprus (14.8%) and the Czech Republic (15.4%) recorded the lowest figures.
Italy was the only EU country that did not experience any change, remaining steady at 27.1%.
"Welfare state institutions play a major role in protecting children from poverty," said Alba Lanau Sánchez, a researcher from Universitat Pompeu Fabra. "Countries with robust social protection systems tend to have lower child poverty rates."
The risk of poverty or social exclusion was also higher for children than for adults in 2024.
Children in the EU were at a higher risk of poverty or social exclusion (24.2%) compared with adults (20.3%), resulting in a difference of 3.9 percentage points.
Across the EU countries, 20 of them experienced a higher risk among children, with the largest differences recorded in Spain (10.5%), Malta and Romania (both 7.3%) and France (7.2%).
Children whose parents attained a higher education level were less likely to be at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
In 2024, 61.2% of children in the EU living with parents who had at most lower secondary education were at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
For those with parents who attained tertiary education, the proportion was 11.0%.
This resulted in a risk gap of 50.2 percentage points based on parents' education levels.
At the national level, the gap was above 50% in 16 EU countries.
The lowest gaps were observed in Denmark, Portugal and Estonia, while the largest differences were recorded in Romania, Czechia and Bulgaria.
Despite Spain having a higher GDP than Bulgaria or Romania, the country's tax-benefit system is often pointed out as one of the main reasons for its high child poverty rates, according to researchers.
In 2021, Spain spent just 1.3% of its GDP on family policies, compared to the OECD average of 2.3%.
"Direct financial support to families was particularly modest," said Lanau Sánchez. "Child-contingent cash benefits schemes in Spain have traditionally provided support to higher deciles through tax relief, which poorer households cannot benefit from, but little or no support went to low-income households."
Spain has also introduced the Minimum Living Income (IMV) in 2021 and the Child Support Supplement in 2022, reaching 502,310 households, according to Spain's Social Security.
However, it remains unclear how much these programs have improved living conditions for families with children.
"Current critiques highlight the IMV shortcomings, including administrative barriers (resulting in high non-take-up rates), legal restrictions on access affecting certain groups, such as young people, the homeless, undocumented and recently arrived migrants, and limited potential coverage for low-income but not severely poor households," said Lanau Sánchez.
"However, we lack in-depth academic research on how the IMV has more thoroughly transformed the social protection system, ultimately crowding out other forms of support, like regional minimum income schemes," she concluded.