Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, has criticized the new sanctions imposed by the UK and several other countries on Israel’s ministers of national security and finance.

Rubio emphasized that such sanctions will not help bring an end to the war in Gaza.

The Israeli foreign minister has also called the decision unacceptable, stating that Israel will hold a special meeting to respond to these sanctions.

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel's foreign minister, said: "It is outrageous that elected representatives and members of the government are subjected to these kind of measures. I discussed it earlier today with Prime Minister Netanyahu and we will hold a special government meeting early next week to decide on our response to this unacceptable decision."

The two Israeli ministers have been sanctioned by Australia, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Norway due to human rights violations and violence against Palestinians. These sanctions include asset freezes and travel bans.

David Lammy, UK foreign secretary, said: "Well, these two individuals, Ben-gvir and Smotrich, have been inciting violence against Palestinian people for months and months and months. They have been encouraging egregious abuses of human rights. We have been raising this with the Israeli government both privately and publicly. We were raising it before we came to government and indeed the last government raised it as an issue. And alongside our partners, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, today we are announcing sanctions against those individuals because we have been absolutely clear this has to stop and we stand for a two state solution.”

Penny Wong, Australia’s foreign minister, said: "Together with our partners, Australia has opposed Israel’s blockade and expansion on military operations in Gaza. And together with our partners, we have opposed the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, like those announced by the Netanyahu government just a couple of weeks ago. And together with our partners, we have imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers for their violence against Palestinians. So far, the Netanyahu government has ignored this international opposition.”

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Israel has stated that supporting the establishment of an independent Palestinian state is no longer part of the official US foreign policy.

Following reactions to this statement, the US State Department clarified that the ambassador’s remarks were his personal views and do not represent the official stance of the US government.