The US is taking increasingly assertive steps in trying to limit settler violence, Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro from Washington DC reports.

“First, telling Israel it must contain this vigilante extremist violence, then issuing a visa ban earlier last week against travel to the US from some of the individuals involved in this violence, and now pausing, at least for the moment, the shipment of 27,000 military-style rifles.

“It was intended to go to the Israeli national police, but the Biden administration fears that they could ultimately be handed over into the hands of these extremist settlers,” Zhou-Castro says.

“It’s notable how this pause occurred because already this shipment had cleared the initial congressional review and passed the committee stage.”