EU ready to approve sanctions against Israeli settlers, says bloc’s top diplomat

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas says the bloc is ready to approve sanctions against Israeli settlers in the occupied territories.

The EU is poised to approve sanctions against violent Israeli settlers, after Hungary’s new government signaled it would no longer block the measure, Kallas said on Monday ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels.

EU ministers are expected to reach a political agreement on the long-stalled sanctions, which former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had repeatedly blocked.

A breakthrough now appears possible after Peter Magyar was sworn in as Hungary’s new prime minister last Saturday.

Magyar has signaled he would not stand in the way of broadly supported sanction packages against Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

“I expect political agreement on the sanctions of violent settlers,” Kallas said, adding, “I really do hope that we have a political agreement regarding the violent settler sanctions that has been on the table for quite some time.”

“There are proposals put forward by the member states, let us see whether member states are willing to move there,” she noted.

Israeli settlers burn homes and cars in brutal West Bank raids

Israeli settlers have launched another wave of raids in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to Palestinian homes and cars.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said she looked forward to sanctioning violent settlers in the West Bank, saying the developments both in Gaza and the West Bank have been quite worrying over the past months.

Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen pushed for stronger steps, calling on the EU to fully ban products from the illegal settlements.

Settler attacks against Palestinians have increased significantly in the past months, with humanitarian organizations warning that Israeli authorities are allowing settlers to operate with total impunity.

These attacks come amid continued Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli military and settlers have killed at least 1,155 Palestinians since October 2023, injured around 11,750 others, and abducted approximately 22,000, according to official figures.

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