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European Union foreign ministers agreed in Brussels on Monday to impose new EU sanctions targeting Hamas leaders and figures associated with Israel’s settler movement in the occupied West Bank, according to diplomats. The 27-nation bloc reached a political agreement unanimously, but it did not approve broader economic pressure measures against the Israeli government that some governments in Europe had sought.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the ministers had reached agreement on the principle that “extremism and violence should carry consequences” and posted that the EU had moved “from deadlock to delivery.” The foreign ministers’ meeting resulted in agreement in principle, diplomats said, while the EU still needed to settle on which organizations and individuals would be covered by the sanctions.
The EU has not released a draft list of those to be targeted. In Israel, Haaretz reported that the list includes settler organizations Amana, Nachala, Hashomer Yosh and Regavim, and some of their leaders, including Daniella Weiss, Meir Deutsch and Avichai Suissa.
Weiss, a leader of Nachala and a figure often described as prominent in the settler movement, said she had received no formal notification of the sanctions and told The Associated Press that she did not understand the justification. She called the sanctions “ridiculous” and characterized the situation as “banal,” saying they would not stop the movement, AP reported. Regavim said it views EU sanctions as “a badge of honor” and that it would “continue working to restore governance and sovereignty throughout all parts of our homeland.”
Israeli officials reacted defiantly to the EU decision. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar posted on social media that the sanctions were “arbitrary and political” and said the government would “continue to stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland.” The AP report noted that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich formulates settlement policy and that Cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir oversees the nation’s police force.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the ministers decided to sanction Hamas leaders and both leaders and organizations in the Israeli settler movement in the occupied West Bank. In a separate social media post, Barrot said the measures were aimed at what he described as “these most serious and intolerable acts,” and he said Hamas was responsible for what he called the worst antisemitic massacre in history since the Shoah, writing in Hebrew terms for the Holocaust.
European and international observers have warned that violence in the occupied West Bank is worsening alongside the Gaza war. The AP report said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded at least 40 Palestinians killed since the start of the year, including a record 11 killed by settlers, two more than in all of 2025.
Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said in a post that the EU “cannot be bystanders in the face of escalating violence and persistent breaches of international law.” Peace Now, an Israeli human rights group, said the EU decision was also “a call to the Israeli public to open its eyes and see the reality we have created through decades of control and settlement in the occupied territories.”
Diplomats said Monday’s agreement came after a political shift inside the bloc. The unanimous vote followed last month’s ouster of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power, with diplomats saying Orbán had repeatedly vetoed earlier attempts to sanction Israeli settlers over actions in the West Bank. AP reported that Orbán’s defeat in April’s election to Péter Magyar paved the way for the EU’s agreement on the new sanctions.
Even so, the EU foreign ministers did not settle on measures that some governments had pushed for as stronger pressure. The AP report said the bloc failed to agree on steps such as banning products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank or suspending a key trade agreement with Israel. Hugh Lovatt of the European Council on Foreign Relations said the EU narrowed its scope to “individuals and to a few entities,” which he said meant it was “ignoring the far more systemic issues at play,” adding that more could be done to address broader conditions.
Human Rights Watch associate EU director Claudio Francavilla said the sanctions were “a step in the right direction” but that “much more” was needed for the EU to comply with international law. Before the Brussels meeting, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Italy needed more time to study a proposal—described by AP as French-Swedish—to sever West Bank settlers from EU markets, and Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said nations could still ban settlement goods on their own if the EU process stalls.
Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares Bueno said the bloc had been discussing measures “for too long,” urging ministers to “move on to a vote and stop saying that there is no qualified majority for it,” and to determine “who is not” in agreement.