Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo lamented the resumption of what he described as renewed violence in Gaza at the Dubai climate summit (Getty Images)
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo says his government will prevent extremist Israeli settlers living in the West Bank from entering its territory.
In a post on the X platform on Wednesday, De Croo said Belgium supported Israel's right to defend its people from the beginning, while calling for calm and compliance with international humanitarian law.
"If we Europeans want to be credible, we have to raise our voices when innocent people are killed in Kiev or Gaza. Extremist settlers living in the West Bank will be barred from entering Belgium."
De Croo warned that his country was coordinating with the United States on those measures and would push the European Union to follow suit.
Officials in Washington said the United States on Tuesday began imposing a visa ban on those involved in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, after several appeals to Israel to do more to prevent violence by Jewish settlers.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the State Department's new visa restriction policy targets "individuals believed to be involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the West Bank, including through acts of violence, or other actions that unduly restrict civilian access to basic services and necessities."
Palestinian Welcome
For its part, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Thursday welcomed Belgium's intention to prevent the entry of extremist settlers living in the West Bank.
In a statement, the ministry praised "the statements made by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo regarding the prevention of the entry of extremist settlers into his country and his rejection of their violence against civilians, and his readiness to work with the United States of America to impose targeted sanctions on individuals involved in acts of violence that undermine peace, security and stability in the occupied West Bank."
The ministry called on all countries, the United Nations and the Security Council to "adopt these positions and trends, and to impose the necessary sanctions and accountability measures on the armed settler militias, which commit attacks and crimes against Palestinian civilians."
She noted that she welcomes the position issued by the summit of the leaders of the Group of Seven countries on condemning the violence committed by settlers, calling for their accountability, and the positions and indicators issued by the US State Department against extremist settlers.
Belgian regrets casualties
A few days ago, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced that he had told Israeli President Isaac Herzog of the need to avoid further civilian casualties, after Israel resumed its attacks on the Gaza Strip.
In remarks at the climate summit in Dubai, De Croo argued that Israel had the right to eliminate what he called the "terrorist threat" from Gaza, but said it should do everything in its power to make sure no more civilians were killed.
The Belgian prime minister lamented the resumption of what he described as renewed violence in Gaza and hoped for more detainees to be released and humanitarian aid to reach the besieged enclave.
His remarks came after Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip has caused hundreds of deaths and injuries since the end of the truce last Friday morning.
Last week, De Croo visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing and stressed the need for Israel to respect international humanitarian law, and said that the destruction of Gaza was unacceptable and the killing of civilians must stop.
The Belgian prime minister's comments at the time angered Tel Aviv, which summoned Belgium's ambassador.
Last month, Petra de Sutter, the Belgian deputy prime minister, called on her government to impose sanctions on Israel over its more than two months of bombardment of Gaza.
Source : Al Jazeera + Agencies