EU greenlights sanctions on Israeli West Bank settlers

Foreign ministers of the European Union on Monday agreed to a set of sanctions aimed at Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

The sanctions had been held up by opposition from Hungary under former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was ousted by rival Peter Magyar in last month's election, paving the way for the bloc to move forward.

The measures were drafted in response to violence against Palestinians amid expansions of settlements in the Israeli occupied West Bank.

Violence in the Palestinian territory surged after the October 7 terror attacks by the militant Palestinian group Hamas in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people. In 2026, some 45 Palestinians, including 11 children, have been killed in the West Bank, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

What did EU and Israeli officials say about West Bank sanctions?

"EU Foreign Ministers just gave the go-ahead to sanction Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians," the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on Monday on X.

"They also agreed new sanctions on leading Hamas figures," she added, without naming any individuals. "Extremisms and violence carry consequences."

"It's done. The European Union is sanctioning today the main Israeli organizations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonization of the West Bank, as well as their leaders," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on social media.

"These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay," he added.

Barrot said that the EU is sanctioning Hamas' "main leaders" and that Hamas is a "terrorist movement that must imperatively be disarmed and excluded from any participation in the future of Palestine."

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that "Israel firmly rejects the decision to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and organizations."

"The European Union has chosen, in an arbitrary and political manner, to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and entities because of their political views and without any basis," he wrote on X.

Israeli settler attacks on West Bank Palestinians increase

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What do the EU's sanctions on West Bank settlers entail?

The sanctions target three settlers and four settler organizations, whose identities ​have yet to be publicly disclosed.

The EU has targeted extremist Israeli West Bank settlers in the past over violence against Palestinians, including with a sanctions package in 2024 that slapped asset freezes and travel bans on four people and two entities.

Some EU countries have called for harsher measures, such as banning products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergar called for tariffs on such imports, along with sanctions on "Israeli ministers that are driving these settlements."

The agreement reached on Monday starts the EU's legislative procedure on imposing sanctions. The measures are set to enter into force at a later date.

While the EU is moving forward on sanctioning settlers, there remains no consensus among member states on broader measures against Israel such as curbing trade ties.

Israel is 'advancing the annexation of the West Bank'

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Edited by: Alex Berry