The United Kingdom unveiled sweeping new measures targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday, triggering an immediate diplomatic rupture with Israel and a sharp warning from a senior Trump administration official.Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced Tuesday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approval, that Israel would close the British Consulate in Jerusalem and impose a series of countermeasures in response to the UK sanctions.The Israeli measures also include removing British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat, ending British activities training Palestinian Authority forces in the West Bank and denying entry to 12 British elected officials and other British nationals whom Israel accused of antisemitic or anti-Israel activity.UK MOVES TO SANCTION ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS AS PM BURNHAM RISKS CLASH WITH TRUMP: REPORTEd Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary who announced the settlement sanctions policy in Parliament on Tuesday in London, Britain, June 23, 2026.(Toby Melville/Reuters)"Measures against Israel will not go unanswered," Sa’ar said.
"Whoever acts against Israel, Israel will act against them, and they will lose their influence and relevance in the region."The escalation came hours after Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Parliament that Britain would ban imports of goods from Israeli settlements, target companies and individuals facilitating settlement expansion and refuse licenses for arms and other exports that materially contribute to the occupation.The move is part of a coordinated push with France, Canada and other European partners amid what the governments described Tuesday as "unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion" in the West Bank, including Israel’s E1 project, which they argue threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state.The measures come just weeks before world leaders gather for the UN General Assembly in New York and less than two...