BRUSSELS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The European Union unanimously agreed on Monday to impose new sanctions on the leaders of the Palestinian militant Hamas group and the Israeli settler movement, diplomats said, a decision sparked by growing outrage over the devastation in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n
However, the foreign ministers of the 27-nation bloc meeting in Brussels stopped short of endorsing stronger economic measures against the Israeli government, sought by some in Europe.<\/p>\n
Though Monday\u2019s meeting resulted in political agreement, the EU still has to settle on which organizations and individuals will be hit with sanctions, and a committee will finalize the draft list.<\/p>\n
EU\u2019s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas posted on social media that the ministers agreed extremism and violence should carry consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was high time we move from deadlock to delivery,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The settler movement dismisses EU\u2019s move<\/p>\n
The EU has not released a draft list of those to be targeted but Israel\u2019s Haaretz newspaper said it includes settler organizations Amana, Nachala, Hashomer Yosh, Regavim and some of their leaders \u2014 Daniella Weiss, Meir Deutsch and Avichai Suissa.<\/p>\n
Weiss, one of the leaders of Nachala and 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.<\/p>\n
She described the sanctions as \u201cridiculous\u201d and the situation as \u201cbanal,\u201d saying that it would not stop the movement.<\/p>\n
Regavim said the group considers it \u201ca badge of honor\u201d to be sanctioned by the EU and would \u201ccontinue working to restore governance and sovereignty throughout all parts of our homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s government, dominated by far-right proponents of the settler movement, reacted defiantly.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a social media post that the sanctions were \u201carbitrary and political\u201d and vowed that the government would \u201ccontinue to stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Key settlers in Israel\u2019s government include Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who formulates settlement policy, and Cabinet minister Itamar Ben-Gvir<\/a>, who oversees the nation\u2019s police force.<\/p>\n Ministers sought to pressure both Hamas and settlers<\/p>\n French Foreign Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot said the ministers decided to sanction Hamas leaders and both leaders and organizations in the Israeli settler movement in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n \u201cThese most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay,\u201d he said in a social media post.<\/p>\n \u201cIt 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,\u201d Barrot said, using the Hebrew term to describe the Holocaust.<\/p>\n Palestinians, rights groups and international observers are increasingly warning about the worsening violence<\/a> in the occupied West Bank, where young Palestinian men are being killed with increasing regularity amid a broader climate of arson, vandalism and the displacement of farming communities near settlements and outposts.<\/p>\n At least 40 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the year<\/a>, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, including a record 11 by settlers, two more than in all of 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cThe EU cannot be bystanders in the face of escalating violence and persistent breaches of international law,\u201d posted Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee.<\/p>\n The Israeli human rights group Peace Now said the decision also was \u201ca 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.\u201d<\/p>\n A possible sign of more EU pressure on Israel<\/p>\n The unanimous EU vote followed the ouster last month of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n after 16 years in power in Budapest.<\/p>\n A staunch supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Orb\u00e1n had repeatedly vetoed earlier attempts to sanction Israeli settlers over their actions in the West Bank. Orb\u00e1n\u2019s loss in the April election to P\u00e9ter Magyar paved the way for a the EU\u2019s agreement on the new sanctions.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s move by EU\u2019s top diplomats \u201cvalidates the notion that Orb\u00e1n was blocking them single-handedly,\u201d said Martin Kone\u010dn\u00fd, head of the Brussels-based European Middle East Project.<\/p>\n It could also herald a turning point in EU\u2019s Israel policy. Criticism of Netanyahu and his government\u2019s actions in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Iran had pushed many European governments, led by Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands, to seek penalties.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t just turn a blind eye,\u201d Luxembourg Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel said earlier.<\/p>\n Still, the EU diplomats failed to agree on measures such as banning products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank or suspending a key trade agreement<\/a> to pressure Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cThe EU\u2019s narrowed the scope of action now to individuals and to a few entities, and in doing that it\u2019s ignoring the far more systemic issues at play,\u201d said Hugh Lovatt, a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much that you can and should be doing,\u201d he added. Just \u201cadding a few more settlers\u201d to the sanctioned list \u201cis missing the big picture.\u201d<\/p>\n Human Rights Watch associate EU director Claudio Francavilla said the sanctions were \u201ca step in the right direction\u201d but there was much \u201cmore needed for the EU to comply with international law.\u201d<\/p>\n