The European Union has agreed to impose new sanctions on Israeli settlers and settler-linked organisations accused of involvement in escalating violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The decision was approved on Monday by the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers following months of political deadlock. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said it was “high time we move from deadlock to delivery,” warning that “extremisms and violence carry consequences.”
The sanctions come amid a sharp rise in settler attacks since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, according to the United Nations. The UN documented more than 1,800 settler attacks in 2025 involving casualties or property damage across hundreds of Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
Israeli settlements, considered illegal under international law, are built on occupied land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Palestinians seek for a future independent state.
Diplomatic sources said the EU sanctions package targets seven settlers or settler organisations. Among those reportedly included is Daniella Weiss, often described as the “godmother” of the settler movement and already sanctioned by the United Kingdom.
The measures are also expected to affect groups including Nachala, Regavim, HaShomer Yosh, and Amana, which are accused of supporting or financing unauthorized settlement outposts.
Reports further indicate that Meir Deutsch and Avichai Suissa are included in the sanctions list. Suissa had previously been sanctioned by the United States in 2024 before being removed from the list under President Donald Trump.
The sanctions process still requires additional technical and legal procedures before implementation.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the EU was targeting “the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank.”
Israel strongly condemned the move. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar described the sanctions as “arbitrary and political,” insisting Israel would continue defending “the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland.”
Sa’ar also criticized what he called a “distorted moral equivalence” between Israeli citizens and Hamas after the EU simultaneously approved additional sanctions against Hamas representatives.
The sanctions breakthrough followed political changes in Hungary after the departure of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose government had repeatedly blocked similar EU measures due to his close alliance with Israel.
Settlement expansion in the West Bank has accelerated since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to office in late 2022 leading a right-wing, pro-settler coalition government.