EU foreign ministers agreed on Monday to impose a new round of sanctions on 7 Israeli settlers or settler organisations and to add more Hamas representatives to the EU blacklist, after violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank escalated [1, 2]. The package still needs technical and legal steps before it becomes official [1].
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said it was “high time we move from deadlock to delivery... extremisms and violence carry consequences,” while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the bloc was “sanctioning today the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank” [1]. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar called the sanctions “arbitrary and political” and said Israel stands for “the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland” [1].
The decision comes after violence in the West Bank surged following the Gaza war that began in October 2023 after Hamas attacked Israel [1, 2]. Since then, at least 1,155 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, about 11,750 injured and nearly 22,000 arrested, according to the figures cited by Anadolu [2]. Palestine welcomed the EU’s decision and said it was “an important step toward accountability and upholding international law,” according to Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin [2].
The sanctions were reported on 2026-05-13, and the EU said it still had to complete the remaining legal and technical work before the measures could take effect [1, 2].
