EU Ministers set to meet with Israeli and Palestinian top diplomats

• Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Palestinians are not planning to meet.
• France announced EU will adopt sanctions on Hamas over the attack.
• EU countries are also formulating sanctions against “extremist” Israeli settlers.

On Monday, officials announced that EU foreign ministers would hold a series of meetings with counterparts from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and key Arab nations to discuss the war in Gaza and the prospects for a future peace settlement.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz and his Palestinian counterpart Riyad Al-Maliki are not planning to meet during their visits to Brussels.

Additionally, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia will meet with European ministers in Brussels amid concerns of a potential wider conflict in the Middle East.

European diplomats aim to engage each side in discussions about ending the ground violence and determining the next steps toward a longer-term solution.

The EU has faced challenges in establishing a unified stance on the Gaza conflict, with some member states, like Germany, supporting Israel, while others, such as Spain and Ireland, call for an immediate cease-fire.

Hamas, the Islamist movement controlling the Gaza Strip, initiated a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, resulting in approximately 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to the source.

The militants also seized about 250 hostages during the attacks, with around 132 believed by Israel to still be in Gaza.

In response, Israel has pledged to “annihilate” Hamas, and its relentless air and ground offensive has resulted in the deaths of at least 24,620 Palestinians, with around 70 percent of them being women, children, and adolescents, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry.

EU officials have outlined broad demands for the post-war scenario in Gaza, calling for an end to long-term Israeli occupation, the cessation of Hamas’s rule, and the involvement of the Palestinian Authority in governing the territory.

The 27-nation bloc, along with the United States, believes that creating a Palestinian state is the only viable path to achieving lasting peace. However, Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has firmly rejected this suggestion.

France has announced that the EU will adopt sanctions on Hamas over the October 7 attack. The Gaza political chief of the Islamist movement, Yahya Sinwar, was added to the EU’s “terrorist” blacklist on Tuesday.

The EU has already designated Hamas as a “terrorist” organization. Diplomats indicate that EU countries are also in the process of formulating sanctions against “extremist” Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

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