Nearly 90 US lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden in late October calling on him to sanction two Israeli ultranationalist ministers for "incentivizing" violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, Axios reports.

The US has sanctioned several Israeli organizations for supporting violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians but has stopped short of taking action against Israel's Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir and Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich

The aforesaid letter was signed by 17 Democratic senators and 71 Democratic members of the House of Representatives. 

Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have so far resisted recommendations by their advisers to impose sanctions on the ministers, US officials said.

They added that Biden is extremely concerned about the ministers' actions and statements, but he opposes sanctioning democratically elected officials in ally countries.