EU Sanctions Israeli Settlers After Hungary Lifts Veto, Kaja Kallas Says

European Union foreign ministers agreed to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank after Hungary’s new government lifted a veto that had stalled the bloc’s plans.

““We are building the Land of Israel and destroying the idea of a Palestinian state,” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Friday”

Al Jazeera

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the sanctions target “Israeli extremist settlers and entities” as well as “leading Hamas figures,” while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote that the EU was “sanctioning the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank.”

Al Jazeera

Israel quickly denounced the measures, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar describing them as “unacceptable” and “without any basis,” and far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calling them “antisemitic.”

The sanctions package approved at a meeting of member states’ foreign ministers on Monday includes measures targeting three Israeli settlers and four settler organisations, whose identities have not been made public, and the agreement starts the EU’s legislative procedure on imposing sanctions.

As the EU moved toward sanctions on West Bank settlers, Al Jazeera described Israeli actions in Gaza as maintaining a “violent posture,” with Israel “killing at least 13 Palestinians there, with a particular focus on police officers.”

Al Jazeera also said Israeli strikes continued in Gaza throughout the week, and it listed deaths including Azzam al-Hayya, the son of Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, who “died on Thursday from injuries sustained during an Israeli strike the night before in Gaza City.”

Al-Jazeera Net

In the West Bank, Al Jazeera reported that Israeli uprooting of 3,000 Palestinian-planted trees in the occupied West Bank was one action this week that “emphasised Israel’s continued push to expand its dominance over the West Bank.”

The same Al Jazeera weekly wrap said the European Union condemned Israel’s expansion of the “orange line” restricted zone, which it said now covers more than 60 percent of the Gaza Strip, contradicting withdrawal commitments under the October “ceasefire.”

NPR reported that Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank dug up the grave of elderly Palestinian Hussein Asasa and forced his family to remove his body from the cemetery where he had been laid to rest.

Mohammed Asasa told NPR, “The settlers told us: 'Either you take the dead body away right now or we'll use a bulldozer to remove him from the grave and dump him for you,'” and he said the family was given 30 minutes on Friday to lay his father to rest.

The Israeli military confirmed to NPR that the Asasas had coordinated the burial in advance with security forces, and it told NPR its soldiers confiscated digging tools from the settlers and remained at the site to “prevent further friction.”

Ajit Songhai, the head of the United Nations Human Rights Office for the occupied Palestinian territory, called it an example of the “constant failure” of the Israeli military's obligation under international law to protect Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, while NPR said the West Bank has seen a drastic increase in attacks by Israeli settlers since the Hamas-led attack on Israel from Gaza in October 2023.