GAZA: Chris Van Hollen, an influential legislator from Biden’s Democratic Party, has criticised Israel for its brutal siege on Gaza.

“Kids in Gaza are now dying from the deliberate withholding of food. In addition to the horror of that news, one other thing is true: That is a war crime. It is a textbook war crime,” Van Hollen said in a Senate speech.

“And that makes those who orchestrate it war criminals.”

Israeli settlers have shot two Palestinians during an attack on Monday night in the village of Asira al-Qabliya, located south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports, citing Wafa news agency reports.

The attackers, who came from the Israeli settlement of Yitzhar, also set a car on fire and attacked a home with a Molotov cocktail. No further injuries were reported.

In the town of Huwara near Nablus, Israeli settlers also set fire to a vehicle, Wafa reports, while in the Masafer Yatta region, south of Hebron, Israeli settlers also demolished two structures and a sheep pen, uprooted trees and harassed farmers.

International outcry at settler violence is growing, with the United Kingdom announcing on Monday sanctions against four people accused of committing human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.