European Union Sanctions Israeli Settler Groups After Israeli Airstrikes And Artillery Attacks In Gaza

The European Union issued a latest tranche of sanctions against Israeli settler groups and their leaders while reporting several martyrs and dozens of wounded in the Gaza Strip after a series of airstrikes and artillery attacks by Israeli occupation army aircraft and vehicles.

“When the European Union issued its latest tranche of sanctions against Israeli settler groups and their leaders, Regavim, founded in part by the country’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, these groups welcomed the measures as a “badge of honour”

Al Jazeera

The council said in a statement that the sanctions would include "extremist Israeli settlers" and organizations that support them, in light of what it described as serious violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Al Jazeera

In a separate statement, the European Union announced expanding the scope of sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement to include members of Hamas's political bureau, justifying the decision by saying that the targeted individuals "promote and defend acts of violence or justify them".

As the EU moves, the alghad.tv report says all eyes are on Cairo, hosting meetings between Palestinian factions and international mediators under sustained Egyptian pressure to salvage a path to a peace settlement.

When the European Union issued its latest tranche of sanctions, Regavim welcomed the measures as a “badge of honour,” and Daniella Weiss’s Nachala dismissed the European penalties as “ridiculous” and “banal”.

Al Jazeera reports that the EU sanctioned four entities and three individuals associated with the settler movement, including high-profile characters such as Weiss, Regavim and its director, Meir Deutsch, and the Amana cooperative association.

Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat

In the same reporting, Tahseen Alayan, deputy director of Al-Haq, told Al Jazeera that “It’s gotten much worse since October 2023. They now have the courage to attack into the heart of densely populated Palestinian villages.”

Alayan added, “If you buy a sheep, they will steal it. If you build a house, they will destroy it. If you buy a car, they will burn it.”

Israel is considering closing European consulates in Jerusalem in response to punishing the settlers, with right-wing circles and institutions in the Israeli government deliberating proposals that include closure of eight European consulates in East Jerusalem.

“Various right-wing circles and institutions in the Israeli government are holding deliberations, with the participation of experts in international law, in order to respond to the decision taken by the foreign ministers of the european union states in Brussels, in which they announced sanctions on senior officials and leadership bodies in حركة الاستيطان اليهودي بالضفة الغربية”

Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat

The Middle East report quotes lawyer ابراهام شاليف saying, "The European Union must realize that its hostile stance toward Israel will lead to its complete marginalization."

That same report says Shalev proposes that Israeli laws be enacted in the Knesset to impose restrictions, including depriving European donations to political associations in Israel of tax advantages, or imposing heavy taxes on them.

It also reports that the Kohilot Institute regards Israelis who supply Europeans with information about settler attacks and the identity of the attackers as 'informants' and calls for punishing them, while lawyer سارة شيالوم says, "So far, no Israeli harmed by the European sanctions has filed an application".