European Union members agreed Monday to impose new sanctions on Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians, ending a months‑long stalemate, according to senior EU officials.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X that foreign ministers had approved the measures amid rising settler attacks and continued settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. “It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery,” she wrote.
The EU has not yet released the list of individuals and entities to be targeted.
French Foreign Minister Jean‑Noël Barrot said on X that the bloc was sanctioning major Israeli organizations and their leaders for supporting what he called the “extremist and violent colonization of the West Bank.” He said such actions “must stop immediately.”
EU diplomats, however, failed to reach agreement on broader steps, including a ban on products from Israeli settlements or suspending a key trade agreement with Israel.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 5,900 Palestinians have been displaced by settler violence since 2023, including about 2,000 so far this year.