The Trump administration officially lifted sanctions against West Bank residents and groups on Jan. 24.
The sanctions, removed by the Treasury Department, were implemented by the Biden administration in response to alleged violence such as stopping humanitarian convoys from heading toward Gaza amid the Israel–Hamas war.
There has since been a cease-fire reached between Israel and Hamas to temporarily stop the fighting.
The groups the United States had sanctioned included Hashomer Yosh, Meitarim Farm, Eyal Hari Yehuda Company, Amana, Binyanei Bar Amana, Neriya’s Farm, Lehava, Tsav 9, and Hamahoch Farm.
The people sanctioned were Yinon Levi, Shabtai Koshlevsky, Isaschar Manne, Neriya Ben Pazi, Zvi Bar Yosef, Yitzhak Filant, Zohar Sabah, Reut Ben Haim, Itamar Yehuda Levi, and Aviad Sarim.
“After all 250 Palestinian residents of Khirbet Zanuta were forced to leave in late January, Hashomer Yosh volunteers fenced off the village to prevent the residents from returning,” said then-State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
“The volunteers also provided support by grazing the herds and purporting to ‘guard’ the outposts of U.S.-designated individuals.”
Filant is the security coordinator in the West Bank neighborhood of Yitzhar.
“Although Filant’s role is akin to a security or law enforcement officer, he has engaged in malign activities outside the scope of his authority,” Miller said at the time, adding that in February 2024, Filant “led a group of armed settlers to set up roadblocks and conduct patrols to pursue and attack Palestinians in their lands and forcefully expel them from their lands.”
Zohar Sabah, according to Miller, “engaged in threats and acts of violence against Palestinians, including in their homes, and demonstrated a pattern of destructiveness in the West Bank.”
He said Sabah was also implicated in the attack on the al-Ka’abneh elementary school near Jericho in September 2024 which injured several Palestinians at the school.
Miller said in a Nov. 18, 2024, statement that Eyal Hari Yehuda Company “provides vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUVs that have been used in construction activities resulting in the expansion of the physical boundaries.”
On Jan. 20, shortly after being inaugurated, Trump revoked an executive order that allowed the Biden administration to sanction the aforementioned entities and individuals.
During his nomination hearing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that those West Bank-related sanctions would be lifted.
