The European Union approved on Monday sanctions against Israeli settler organizations and their leaders, as well as against Hamas leaders.

The decision, made during a meeting of the 27 EU foreign ministers in Brussels, is only a political moved at this point, and there is still technical and legal work that must be done before the sanctions are officially imposed by the EU executive.

“It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. “Extremisms [sic] and violence carry consequences.”

“It’s done. The European Union is sanctioning today the main Israeli organizations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonization of the West Bank, as well as their leaders,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on X.

“These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay,” he said. “It is sanctioning the main leaders of Hamas, responsible for the worst antisemitic massacre in our history since the Shoah, during which 51 French people lost their lives, a terrorist movement that must imperatively be disarmed and excluded from any participation in the future of Palestine,” Barrot added, using the Hebrew term to describe the Holocaust.

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The move, which comes in response to rising violence by extremist Israelis in the West Bank and the expansion of Israeli communities in the disputed territory, had been stalled by former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.

But the ouster of Orban, a staunch ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, by rival Peter Magyar appeared to have paved the way for the veto to be lifted.

Monday’s move “validates the notion that Orban was blocking them single-handedly,” said Martin Konečný, head of the Brussels-based European Middle East Project.


Peter Magyar takes the oath as Hungary’s prime minister during a ceremony in Budapest, Hungary, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

An EU official told The Times of Israel that a total of seven settlers and settler organizations will be blacklisted. The individuals will have assets frozen and be banned from entering the EU, among other measures.

According to the Peace Now NGO, sanctions will be leveled against Regavim and its head Meir Deutsch; HaShomer Judea and Samaria and its former chief Avichai Suissa; Nachala and its head, settler leader Daniella Weiss; and the Amana settlement organization.

Weiss, often regarded as the godmother of the Israeli settler movement, said she had received no formal notification of the sanctions and told The Associated Press that she did not understand the justification for them.

She described the sanctions as “ridiculous” and the situation as “banal,” saying that it would not stop the movement.

Regavim said the group considers it “a badge of honor” to be sanctioned by the EU and would “continue working to restore governance and sovereignty throughout all parts of our homeland.”


Israeli far-right activist and founder of the Nachala settler organization Daniella Weiss at a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip near the border fence ahead of a right-wing rally on July 30, 2025. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

In 2024, the EU announced sanctions on Israeli far-right activists and organizations in the West Bank, targeting five individuals, two illegal outposts, and one organization.

 ‘Distorted moral equivalence’

The decision was roundly condemned by Israeli officials and politicians.

Israel “firmly rejects” the decision, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on X, saying that the EU imposed sanctions “in an arbitrary and political manner… because of their political views and without any basis.”

“Equally outrageous is the unacceptable comparison the European Union has chosen to make between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists,” he continued. “This is a completely distorted moral equivalence.”


Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar attends the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace hosted by US President Donald Trump at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, on February 19, 2026. (SAUL LOEB / AFP)

An EU official told The Times of Israel that the decision on Hamas sanctions was not made on the same day to draw any sort of comparison, but was rather a condition by some member states for their support for sanctions on settlers.

“Israel has stood, stands, and will continue to stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland,” Sa’ar said. “No other people in the world has such a documented and longstanding right to its land as the Jewish people have to the Land of Israel. This is a moral and historical right that has also been recognized by the law of nations, and no actor can take it away from the Jewish people.”


Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meets with children in the West Bank settlement of Elkana on May 17, 2022. (Kobi Gideon / GPO)

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who is running to replace Netanyahu in the upcoming elections, called the sanctions “a dangerous action against the State of Israel as a whole,” while blaming the current government for Israel’s diplomatic isolation.

“This stems, among other things, from a chain of harmful and childish statements and videos by government ministers, a complete absence of a public diplomacy apparatus, and an active invitation to foreign entities to impose sanctions on Israeli public servants for political ends,” Bennett wrote on X. “When you call on President Trump to impose sanctions on Israeli judges, you gravely undermine Israeli sovereignty, and it comes back like a boomerang.”


A general view of the West Bank settlement of Sa-Nur on May 7, 2026. (Ilia Yefimovich/AFP)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a dedicated backer of the settlement enterprise, said in a statement that “European hypocrisy is reaching new heights.”

He called for Netanyahu to approve his plan to put strategic areas of the West Bank under full Israeli civil and military control.

Growing violence, growing frustration

The EU’s highly critical attitude toward Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza reached a new nadir after Israel invaded Lebanon in March — in response to the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group’s attacks on Israel — and after the Knesset passed a new law on the death penalty for Palestinian terror convicts in the West Bank.

Last month, several EU states rejected a push by Spain, Slovenia, and Ireland to suspend the bloc’s cooperation agreement with Israel.


Palestinians inspect a burned vehicle following an attack by Israeli extremist settlers in the Wadi Rahim area of Hebron in the West Bank, May 1, 2026. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Extremist settlers, sometimes in mobs, have been recorded assaulting Palestinians, torching cars, and damaging property. Arrests in such cases are rare, and convictions are even less common, though the attacks take place on a near-daily basis.

Critics accuse the government of turning a blind eye to the violent attacks, which have become increasingly common and deadly in recent years.

The IDF has also faced criticism for often standing by while attacks unfold — with troops sometimes actively participating — or failing to prosecute those responsible.

IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth recently warned about the phenomenon, which he called out as “Jewish terrorism.”

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir last month issued a sharp condemnation of settler violence, calling attacks against Palestinian civilians and soldiers in the West Bank “morally and ethically unacceptable” and a major strategic impediment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.