EU expands plan for new tariffs, sanctions against Israel due to Gaza war

Kaya Kallas, EU foreign policy chief, called on 27 member states to raise tariffs to certain Israeli goods and impose sanctions on the 10 heads of Hamas, Israeli settlers and two members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Grav and Finance Minister Bezalel Smorich.

Hamas has been declared a terrorist organisation by the EU and the United States.

“We are proposing these measures not to punish Israel or the Israeli people, but to pressure the Israeli government to change course and end the suffering of people in Gaza”, Kallas said.

“The war must be ended, suffering must be stopped and all hostages must be released”, she added.

Sanctions would mean freezing individuals' assets in Europe and preventing them from travel within the EU, reports REL, the Periscope broadcast.

The EU is Israel's biggest trading partner, so the tariffs can have major consequences on the Israeli economy, which has already been shaken by the cost of a long war.

About 32m euros of bilateral funds controlled by the European Commission would be suspended immediately. The commission also supports the Palestinian Authority.

Israel denies that there is breadfall in Gaza and says it allows sufficient humanitarian aid to enter.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, pledging that Israel would not undergo the European campaign.

“Trysnia through sanctions will not work. The state of Israel is a proud and sovereign nation, and we will not bow down to threats, while Israel's security is at stake”, he wrote on paper.

EU members split over Israel

The European Union, with 27 member states, has been divided over the last 23 months of war in the Gaza Strip.

It is not clear whether most of them will agree to pass sanctions and trade measures.

The bloodshed in Gaza has sparked protests in numerous European cities -- from Amsterdam to Barcelona -- and has added criticism of Brussels' bureaucracy for perceived inability to exercise real pressure on Israel to stop military operations and allow more humanitarian aid.

The number of those killed in Gaza has exceeded more than 67,000 Palestinians since the beginning of the war on October 7th 2023, according to the enclave's health officials.

War began after the Hamas - led attack in southern Israel, where militants killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped another 251, according to Israeli officials.

The proposed partial success “is a well-thought response to an increasingly urgent” situation, said Marcos Sefcovic, the European Commission's trade representative.

What does the proposal contain?

If enough EU countries agree, then tariffs worth around 230m euros will be set against 37 per cent of Israeli goods, worth 15.9 billion euros, imported by the EU, Sefcovic said. Currently, the EU does not set tariffs on this Israeli freight category thanks to an Association Agreement.

A review by the EU diplomatic Corps in June found that Israel had violated the human rights component of this agreement, called Article 2.

Israeli European critics have demanded that the entire trade deal be suspended due to the war in Gaza.

But, for now, the commission proposes to lift the preference for zero-tariffs for a selected amount of Israeli goods and implement the World Trade Organization's tariffs, which range from 8 percent to 40 percent for various products.

“We are not proposing to suspend trade with Israel, but we are proposing to suspend trade preferences”, said a senior European official in charge of communication for the European Commission, who was not authorised to speak publicly according to the commission's policy.

The proposal followed last week's announcement by von der Leyen that it would require sanctions and a partial trade suspension of Israel due to his military campaign in Gaza, giving up its traditional pro-Israel stance. /Periscopi/