EU Sanctions Hamas Leaders And Israeli Settlers After Hungary Lifts Orban Veto

The European Union agreed on Monday to impose new sanctions on the leaders of Hamas and the Israeli settler movement, after a meeting of the EU’s 27 foreign ministers in Brussels.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, said on X, “It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery,” as the bloc stopped short of endorsing stronger economic measures against the Israeli government.

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The decision was sparked by growing outrage over the devastation in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war, while the EU still had to settle on which organizations and individuals would be hit with sanctions.

The EU’s move followed Hungary’s new government giving its approval after Viktor Orban had blocked the measure for months, with Orban unseated in April and Péter Magyar sworn in as Orban’s replacement on Saturday.

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar said Israel “firmly rejects” the EU’s decision and accused the bloc of imposing sanctions on Israeli citizens and groups “because of their political views and without any basis.”

In Israel, the sanctions were met with defiance from Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who called them “arbitrary and political” and vowed that the government would “continue to stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland.”

Settler leaders also rejected the EU’s action, with Nachala leader Daniella Weiss telling The Associated Press she did not understand the justification and describing the sanctions as “ridiculous” and the situation as “banal.”

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French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the ministers decided to sanction Hamas leaders and both leaders and organizations in the occupied West Bank, adding, “These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay.”

The EU had not released a draft list of those targeted, but Haaretz said it included settler organizations Amana, Nachala, Hashomer Yosh, Regavim and some of their leaders—Daniella Weiss, Meir Deutsch and Avichai Suissa.

Peace Now said the decision was “a call to the Israeli public to wake up to the reality we have created through decades of occupation,” while the group warned that “The rampant violence of settlers in the West Bank” was leading Israel into “a moral abyss.”

While the EU agreed on Monday to sanction Hamas leaders and Israeli settlers, diplomats stopped short of stronger economic measures, leaving the bloc without consensus on options such as banning products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank or suspending a key trade agreement.

The Guardian reported that Kaja Kallas said on Monday, “Violence and extremism carry consequences,” but also said there was still no consensus among the 27 member states on more hard-hitting trade sanctions.

The Washington Post said the 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.

In the background of the EU debate, the NPR account tied the move to a broader climate of violence in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians rights groups and international observers warned about worsening violence and said at least 40 Palestinians had been killed since the start of the year, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The stakes for EU policy were framed by the deadlock’s end after Hungary’s Viktor Orban was voted out of power in April and Péter Magyar’s successor government dropped the opposition, with the decision seen as portending a new era in which the EU adopts a more united tone against Israeli policies.