On Friday 5th June, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a car in the occupied West Bank, killing Sam Fahd Abu Haykal; he was just seven months old.

The attack happened near the city of Hebron. Located 19 miles south of Jerusalem, Hebron – one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Levant – has been an epicentre for violence between Israelis and Palestinians for generations.

It was there in 1994 that religious extremist Baruch Goldstein entered a mosque and opened fire on Palestinians worshipping during the month of Ramadan, killing 29 people. Goldstein died during the attack, but his actions struck a chord with a then-17-year-old Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Ben-Gvir reportedly took his future wife to Goldstein’s grave on their first date. Until 2021, he displayed Goldstein’s portrait in his home, only removing it on the advice of campaign strategists.

A year later, Ben-Gvir became Israel’s National Security Minister, a position he still holds today. The soldiers who killed seven-month-old Sam Fahd Abu Haykal would have been under Ben-Gvir’s leadership.

Last month, Ben-Gvir drew international condemnation for taunting activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla as they knelt with their hands tied behind their backs. The country’s own Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, warned his counterpart that he was not the face of Israel. Sadly, for many, that is exactly who he is.

Because no matter where you look in Israel’s 37th government, Ben-Gvir’s extremist ideology permeates. Nowhere is this truer than in their approach to illegal settler expansion in the West Bank.

While, in truth, no Israeli government since its 1967 occupation of the West Bank has done anything to stem the proliferation of illegal settlements, annexation has become an explicit policy objective under the current regime.

Within its first three years of rule, the Ministry of Settlement and National Missions’ annual budget grew by 122%. Alongside this came money for unauthorised outposts and direct funding for organisations involved in dispossessing Palestinians of their land.

This increased financial backing has triggered an unprecedented surge in settlement construction and settler violence, which often occurs with tacit or active police and army support. In fact, Ben-Gvir – who himself is a settler – reportedly instructed senior police officers in the West Bank to refrain from enforcing the law against settlers and right-wing groups committing offences against Palestinians.

Against this backdrop it is unsurprising that Amnesty International recently concluded that the Israeli government is engaged in the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Palestinians from the West Bank.

Given these settlements are illegal under international law, you would hope the escalating crisis in the West Bank would provoke a robust response from our government; hope being the key word here.

Because while last week the government announced further sanctions on firms and individuals involved in the settler movement, the Foreign Secretary stopped short of banning trade with illegal settlements full stop.

This is the fourth sanctions package of a piecemeal strategy that has delivered zero results. How can the government not see that sanctioning a few organisations here and there will do nothing when this activity is happening with the consent, support, and financing of the Israeli government?

Until the government takes the kind of action Israel will actually notice – starting with sanctions against Netanyahu – the plight of Palestinians in the West Bank will only worsen.