EU FMs Unanimously Agree on Sanctions against Violent Israeli Settlers

The settlers will be slapped with travel bans and asset freezes upon the implementation of the measures.

"A solid compromise has been agreed at the working level and I hope that this will be continued until full adoption soon, but the political agreement is there," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters after the ministers met in Brussels on Monday.

"Today, we have approved, unanimously, the sanctions against the violent settlers that harass the Palestinians in the West Bank," Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares also said, Press TV reported.

The violence has ramped up over the past months. Combined with the Israeli regime's raids across the occupied territory, aggression perpetrated by the illegal settlers has claimed the lives of hundreds of Palestinians throughout the period.

Earlier this month, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk expressed serious concern regarding the rising settler violence in a report to the world body's Human Rights Council.

“The West Bank is already in crisis. Yet, settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian State,” he said.

More than 600,000 Zionists live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

All the settlements are considered to be illegal under the international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the Israeli regime's settlement construction activities across the occupied territory through numerous resolutions.