European Union (EU) foreign ministers agreed on Thursday to impose new sanctions targeting violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, as well as senior Hamas figures, EU foreign policy chief Kaia Kallas said.
The sanctions package, which includes three immigrants and four immigrant organizations whose identities have not yet been made public, was blocked for months by the previous Hungarian government, which lost elections last month.
European governments have expressed concern over rising reports of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
"It was the ultimate moment to move from stagnation to concrete results. Extremism and violence have consequences," Kalas wrote on the X network.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on the X network that the EU "arbitrarily and politically decided to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and entities because of their political views and without any basis."
"Equally outrageous and unacceptable is the comparison that the European Union has decided to make between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists. It is a completely distorted moral equation," he added.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim also criticized the EU ministers' move against his group, saying the EU was insisting on what he described as political hypocrisy and racism.
"It equates a fascist executioner who boasts of committing genocide and ethnic cleansing, a rogue state that violates every international law, with a victim who defends himself in accordance with all laws and regulations," Naim told Reuters.
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