The European Union has agreed on new sanctions on Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank for violence against Palestinians. The sanctions had been blocked for months by the previous Hungarian government, which lost an election last month.
Issued on: 12/05/2026 - 07:42Modified: 12/05/2026 - 07:42
"It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery," Kallas said on X after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. "Extremisms and violence carry consequences."
The sanctions target three individual settlers and four settler organisations, who have not yet been identified.
West Bank settlements prompt call for sanctions from European political figures
The sanctions, which include asset freezes and travel bans, will also target members the Palestinian militant group Hamas - a condition required by some countries in order to support the sanctions.
The occupied West Bank has been gripped by almost daily violence involving Israeli troops and settlers since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
The EU imposed sanctions on eight individuals and organisations in 2024, but further measures had been blocked by former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of Israel.
Hungary's new Prime Minister, Peter Magyar, appears to have paved the way for the veto to be lifted.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the EU was "sanctioning the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank, as well as their leaders".
"These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay," he wrote on social media.
Israel condemned the new sanctions.
"As Israel and the US are 'doing Europe's dirty work' by fighting for civilisation against jihadist lunatics in Iran and elsewhere, the European Union exposed its moral bankruptcy by drawing a false symmetry between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on its official X account.
While the EU is moving ahead with the sanctions on Israeli settlers, there remains no consensus yet among member states to take further steps against Israel such as curbing trade ties.
EU rolls out €6m West Bank aid plan amid settler violence against Palestinians
The foreign ministers meeting in Brussels discussed calls to ban products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Italy's Antonio Tajani said that the EU's executive would make a proposal and the bloc would see if it had enough backing from member states.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank, not including east Jerusalem, among some three million Palestinians, in settlements that are illegal under international law.
In 2025, the expansion of Israeli settlements reached its highest level since at least 2017, when the United Nations began tracking data.
(with newswires)
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