European Union foreign ministers agreed Monday to impose new sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and leading Hamas figures, ending months of deadlock inside the bloc.
The package targets three Israeli settlers and four settler organizations, though their identities have not yet been publicly disclosed. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the decision followed rising concern among European governments over reports of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Kallas said it was time for the EU to move from deadlock to delivery, adding that extremism and violence carry consequences. The sanctions had been blocked for months by Hungary’s previous government, which lost an election last month.
The move marks a shift in the EU’s handling of West Bank violence after repeated calls from several European governments for a tougher response.
The package stops short of broader measures against Israel, such as trade restrictions on settlement goods or a wider review of EU Israel ties, which some European officials and advocacy groups have pushed for.
Israel sharply criticized the decision. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the EU had imposed sanctions on Israeli citizens and entities in what he called an arbitrary and political manner. He also rejected what he described as a moral equivalence between Israeli citizens and Hamas figures.
The Israeli prime minister’s office also condemned the package, saying the EU had drawn a false symmetry between Israeli citizens and Hamas. Hamas official Basem Naim criticized the decision as well, accusing the EU of political hypocrisy for placing sanctions on both sides.
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