EU to slap new sanctions on Hamas

The European Union is set to announce new sanctions on Palestinian militant group Hamas on Monday, three EU diplomats told POLITICO. The new sanctions are set to hit the financing sources of Hamas and target several individuals linked to the group.

The officials were granted anonymity to speak candidly about sensitive internal negotiations.

One of the diplomats said a new set of sanctions was necessary to hit Hamas’ financing.

On Tuesday, the EU imposed sanctions on the political leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, over the group’s deadly attack in Israel on October 7. This measure was taken under the existing sanctions regime and is separate from the sanctions set to be announced by EU foreign ministers on Monday, the two officials said.

In parallel to the discussion on sanctions against Hamas, EU countries who are more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause advocated imposing sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank. This idea was also proposed in December by the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell.

However, it was too politically sensitive to agree on both measures in parallel, two of the officials said. The idea is to work in phases. Once the EU’s foreign ministers sign off on the sanctions against Hamas, work will continue on sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers. The U.S. announced visa bans for extremist Israeli settlers in December.

In the months since, the U.S. and Israel put pressure on European leaders to follow their lead in imposing sanctions on key Hamas operatives as well as a number of “financial facilitators” in countries such as Sudan, Turkey, Algeria and Qatar. In November, one diplomat told POLITICO that the Commission and the bloc’s diplomatic arm might want more time to test the waters before putting forward a formal proposal.

Hamas already is designated as a terror organization by the EU, the U.S. and the U.K.

The current Israel-Hamas war in Gaza within the broader conflict has been a divisive topic between EU countries. It took the EU several months to unanimously agree to impose sanctions.