France is to sanction certain extremist Israeli settlers, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Tuesday, denouncing “unacceptable” violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

France “has decided to take measures… against certain extremist Israeli settlers,” Colonna said at a joint press conference with her British counterpart David Cameron after she traveled to Israel and the West Bank.

“I was able to see for myself the violence committed by certain of these extremist settlers. It’s unacceptable,” she said.

Israel has come under increasing pressure from its allies to rein in settler violence, which has soared since the Hamas terror group’s October 7 massacre.

It follows similar decisions recently announced by both the United Kingdom and the United States which have banned extremist Jewish settlers implicated in a rash of recent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.

Last week, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also said he had presented a discussion paper to EU foreign ministers looking at “imposing sanctions against extremist settlers in West Bank.”

He acknowledged, however, that there was as yet no unanimity among the 27 EU governments on the issue, who would need to vote unanimously in order to enact the proposal.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also told the body’s lawmakers she was in favor of imposing sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers.

“The rise in violence by extremist settlers is inflicting immense suffering on the Palestinians. It undermines the prospects for a lasting peace and could further exacerbate regional instability,” she said.

Following the US measure, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant defended the country’s handling of the phenomenon and said those carrying out such violence are extremists. “We don’t need others to explain that to us,” he said.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst into Israel from the land, air and sea in a shock assault in which they massacred more than 1,200 people and seized some 240 hostages. Entire families were slaughtered in their homes and hundreds were mown down at an outdoor music festival.

In response to the deadliest massacre in the country’s history, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas from the Gaza Strip, where the terror group has ruled since 2007.

Since the start of the war, an uptick in violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank has been noted by human rights groups in Israel and abroad.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, some 280 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces conducting arrest raids, and in a few cases by settlers.

The left-wing Yesh Din organization has recorded over 240 incidents of violence and harassment by settlers against Palestinians in over 93 communities in the West Bank since October 7.

According to activist groups such as B’tselem and Peace Now, as well as the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), this wave of harassment has led hundreds of Palestinians in vulnerable rural communities to abandon their villages.

There have also been a number of deadly terror attacks against Israelis in the West Bank and Israel since October 7.

Israeli troops have arrested some 2,400 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,200 affiliated with Hamas.

Based on military estimates, the vast majority of the 280 Palestinians killed since October 7 were shot dead during clashes amid arrest raids, and many of them, according to data seen by The Times of Israel, were armed with either a firearm or an explosive device.

The IDF is aware of at least three cases of uninvolved Palestinians being killed by troops in recent weeks, and a handful of cases of settlers killing Palestinians, which are still under investigation.