The UK government is due to announce sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a minister indicated, in a move likely to anger Israel and the United States.

The decision would signal a toughening of the UK’s stance on Israel under new Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who entered Downing Street in July after Keir Starmer stepped down.

It comes following weeks of increasing attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank that some western governments fear threatens the two-state solution.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband would make a statement to parliament laying out “measures specifically targeted at the expansion of these settlements, which are illegal under international law in the West Bank”.

He told Sky News that the changes, on which he provided no further detail, would be motivated by “the idea of keeping alive this possibility of seeing a Palestinian state alongside Israel”.

“I think it’s also important to say that Israel is an important trading partner for the UK. This isn’t intended to be a boycott of all Israeli goods,” he added.

UK government ministers have suggested recently that goods coming from illegal settlements could be subject to trade restrictions as part of the changes.

Mr Miliband, the son of Jewish refugees to the UK, vowed last week to announce a “comprehensive” reset of policy towards Israel and condemned “appalling settler terrorism” in the occupied West Bank.

Mr Miliband called the so-called E1 development plan for more than 1,200 homes green-lit by Israel last year, “the crossing of a red line, as it cuts through the heart of the West Bank and risks making a Palestinian state unviable”.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.

UN Secretary General António Guterres has said the E1 plan posed an “existential threat” to a contiguous Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep establishing the settlements despite mounting international pressure, promising a major wave of immigration to the Palestinian territory.

Some of the violence by settlers in recent weeks had drawn rare condemnation from Mr Netanyahu and unusually strong criticism from US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, as well as more typical critics in European capitals.

Mr Huckabee claimed the UK’s sanctions are “an irrational action” and “discrimination against the Jewish people”.

“This is an irrational action. That’s what I’m saying. I don’t understand what it’s supposed to achieve.

“If the UK is really interested in dealing with issues they feel like are wrong, where are the sanctions against North Korea, China, Russia? Where are the sanctions against many other nations in the world?

“I feel like that it’s a discrimination against the Israeli government, it’s discrimination against the Jewish people and I don’t understand the rationale of it.”

He added: “And I realise, look, the UK is a sovereign country, they can do what they want, but so is the US.”

Mr McFadden rejected the accusation of “Jew hate” from Mr Huckabee.

He told Sky News: “I fundamentally reject that. When it comes to the Jewish community in the UK, this is a really important part of our society.

“I want Jewish people in the UK to be able to live their lives freely in education, in work, in worship, in all aspects of their lives, and I and every government minister would condemn any attacks on the Jewish community here in the UK.”

In September last year, former prime minister Keir Starmer announced that the UK was formally recognising a Palestinian state, marking a historic shift in decades of British foreign policy.

According to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 1,105 Palestinians in the West Bank, including both militants and civilians, since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory, among some three million Palestinians.

Additional reporting PA