The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry has hailed a decision by the Spanish government to begin imposing sanctions on a group of 12 Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports.

The ministry said the “courageous decision” by Spain was an important step towards the “necessity” of imposing more sanctions on the entire illegal settlement system.

In a speech before the Joint Committee of the Spanish House of Representatives, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said that his government had begun to impose sanctions on “a first group of 12 violent colonists”.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has called on all countries to impose deterrent sanctions not only on far-right Israeli settlers, but to also place settler organisations on lists of “terror” groups, and exert pressure on Israel to cease settlement construction.