May 11, 2026, 8:13 p.mMay 11, 2026, 8:13 p.m
The foreign ministers of the EU states have agreed on further sanctions because of the violence by radical Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. The agreement became possible after the end of a long blockade of Hungary. Trade restrictions for products from illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories are also being prepared, as EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.Image: keystone
The EU first imposed sanctions due to settler violence in 2024. Recently, further punitive measures were blocked by Hungary, which is now taking a different course after the change of government.
The measures are intended to affect around ten people and organizations, as the German Press Agency learned from diplomats. The planned sanctions decisions will, among other things, mean that assets in the EU will have to be frozen. An additional EU entry and transit ban would apply to people.
“Many member states have called for this to be brought forward,” Kallas said in a press conference. We will work with the Commission to put forward proposals on the topic.
The federal government has also spoken out against such measures. But they could also be decided by majority vote because they are not classic sanctions, but rather trade measures.
Ministers are not affected
Details of the people and organizations that will be affected by the already agreed sanctions will be announced when they are formally decided in the coming weeks. However, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir will not be sanctioned, as was originally considered. It was said that there was still not the necessary consensus for this step.
EU wants to set an example
With the planned sanctions, the EU wants to send a clear signal against settler violence. Since the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023 and the Gaza war it triggered, violence by radical Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank has increased significantly. There is increasing talk of “Jewish terror” in the Israeli media.
Violence by Israeli settlers has increased.Image: IMAGO / Middle East Images
The EU also sees both the attacks against Palestinians and the construction of settlements in the West Bank as obstacles to international efforts to find a long-term peace solution to the Middle East conflict. Experts also classify the settler violence as part of a strategy by the right-wing religious government in Israel with the aim of expelling Palestinians from the occupied West Bank in order to enable further land seizures there in the long term.
Israel criticizes the “unbearable equation” with Hamas
Israel firmly rejected the sanctions plans on Monday. The attempt to impose political ideas on the country through sanctions is unacceptable and will not be successful, said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. He also criticized the fact that the EU project created an intolerable equation between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists. He was obviously alluding to the fact that the agreement between the EU foreign ministers also provides for new punitive measures against the Islamist Hamas.
Meanwhile, the Israeli organization Peace Now, which campaigns for a solution to the conflict with the Palestinians, welcomed the decision. “This is a serious warning signal that the European Union is sending us,” the statement said. “The escalating violence by settlers in the occupied territories, encouraged and supported by the government, is leading Israel into a moral abyss and tarnishing its reputation.” (hkl/sda/dpa)