The new sanctions could be approved by the EU in a few days against settlers involved in violent acts against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the French foreign minister told the newspaper Le Figaro.

In May, the EU implemented a first package of sanctions against three individuals and four Israeli entities for serious abuses against Palestinians, which was rejected by Tel Aviv.

After its forces caused some 70,000 deaths in the Gaza Strip and nearly 5,000 in Lebanon, the Israeli government accused the EU of experiencing a “moral breakdown,” which it attributed to criticism of Tel Aviv’s genocidal actions.

Barrot expressed “extreme concern about the intensification of illegal settlement activity in the West Bank and the explosion of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.”

  This comes amid the persistent breakdown of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, as Tel Aviv launches constant bombardments against southern Lebanon and the outskirts of Beirut.

  The sanctions adopted in May, “for the third time” at the European level, are also “a way of calling on the Israeli government to assume its responsibilities in the face of this violence, which, in my opinion, also weakens the authority of the State,” he added.

  The French Foreign Minister admitted that nothing like this had been seen for years, alluding to the destructive bombing of Lebanon by Zionist forces, as well as attacks against members of the UN mission deployed there.

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