EU Foreign Ministers Agree Sanctions on Hamas Leaders and Israeli Settlers After Hungary Lifts Veto

European Union foreign ministers agreed Monday in Brussels to impose new sanctions on the leaders of Hamas and on Israeli settlers and settler organizations, after Hungary’s government lifted a veto that had blocked the measures for months.

“The European Union has agreed to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers and leading Hamas figures”

Al Jazeera

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the ministers agreed that "Extremisms and violence carry consequences," and the EU still had to settle on which organizations and individuals would be hit with sanctions.

Al Jazeera

The Washington Post reported the EU’s decision required unanimity in the 27-nation bloc and would impose a travel ban and freeze assets of a group of Israeli settlers and organizations, along with sanctions on Hamas members.

The BBC said the EU foreign ministers approved the sanctions on Monday on Israeli settlers over rising violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with technical and legal work still required before the sanctions are officially imposed.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rejected the EU decision as "arbitrary and political" and said Israel would continue to "stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland."

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot welcomed the sanctions, writing that the EU was "sanctioning the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank" and that "These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay."

Al-Jazeera Net

The Media Line reported that the sanctions included asset freezes and travel bans targeting seven Israeli settlers or entities and multiple Hamas leaders, while also saying the sanctions did not include Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, according to the Guardian.

Al Jazeera reported that the EU package targeted three Israeli settlers and four settler organisations, while also agreeing to sanction the leadership of Hamas, and said the identities had not yet been publicly disclosed.

EU officials said seven settlers or settler organisations would be sanctioned and that the EU also agreed to sanction more representatives from Hamas, but several member states still lacked consensus on broader economic steps.

The Guardian described the sanctions as a "baby step" and said there was still no consensus among the 27 member states on more hard-hitting trade sanctions, even as France and Sweden called for tariffs on imported products from illegal settlements.

POLITICO reported that France and Sweden backed restrictions on trade with settlements, while broader proposals such as suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement remained deeply divisive inside the bloc.

The Washington Post said the sanctions were to take effect once legal and technical work was complete and that the names of the people and organizations to be targeted had not yet been made public, leaving the next phase dependent on the EU’s drafting and implementation process.