EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that a proposal is in the works to introduce sanctions against violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Borrell made the announcement Monday evening after an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels which discussed the conflict in Gaza.
The measures would use the EU's sanctions instrument for penalizing serious human rights violations. They would involve bans on travel to the European Union as well as the freezing of assets held in the bloc.
Borrell also confirmed that further sanctions against the militant Palestinian organization Hamas are also being discussed.
According to diplomats, these are primarily intended to further restrict Hamas' funding opportunities and could be adopted at the same time as the punitive measures against the Israeli settlers.
Israel took control of the West Bank, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, during the Six-Day War in 1967. Some 600,000 Jewish settlers live in the occupied West Bank today in more than 200 settlements.
