The European Union adopted this Friday sanctions against four radical settlers and two supremacist groups Jews responsible for riots and attacks in the West Bankfollowing the agreement to respond to the crisis in the Middle East with sanctions against Hamas and against settlers for putting the two-state solution in check.

Specifically, the EU applies these measures when it understands that these individuals and groups are behind serious abuses against the Palestinian population, including “torture” and other “degrading and inhumane” treatmentin addition to violations of their property rights and violating their private and family life.

The sanctioned organizations are Lehavaa radical right-wing Jewish supremacist group, and Hilltop Youtha radical youth group known for violent acts against Palestinians and their villages in the West Bank.

In addition, the people that the EU adds to its sanctions list are well-known Hilltop Youth figures such as Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered, whom it accuses of being involved in attacks against Palestinians that resulted in fatalities in 2015 and 2023. The Two other sanctioned people, Neria Ben Pazi and Yinon Levi, are accused of participating in multiple violent episodes against Palestinians in different parts of the West Bank in recent years.

In this way, the EU gives definitive green light to sanctions against violent settlers, an issue that has been debated for months within the community bloc and that is approved following the choreography agreed to first sanction Hamas. In March, the member countries reached an agreement to proceed with both sanctions, unblocking the measures that had been paralyzed for weeks due to Hungary’s veto and that led countries such as Belgium, France or Spain to impose its own sanctions.

Israel took West Bank in the 1967 war in the Middle East and the area has been under military occupation since then, while Israeli settler settlements have only expanded. Aggressions against Palestinians have intensified in the area in recent months, in parallel with the war in the Gaza Strip.