EU states meet to discuss measures against Israel over Gaza war

The 27-nation bloc is divided over applying pressure on Israel to stop its devastating military offensive

European Union's Foreign Ministers attend an informal meeting at Forum Copenhagen in Copenhagen on August 30. AFP

European Union foreign ministers were meeting in Denmark on Saturday to discuss possible measures against Israel over the war in Gaza, including sanctions on ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu's government and a ban on exports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The meeting comes as the Israeli military intensifies attacks on Gaza city in preparation for a full-scale invasion that would displace one million people living there, or about half the Palestinian territory's population. The UN declared last week that a famine was taking placing in the area.

Splits between EU states make it unlikely that strong measures will be agreed upon at the meeting of foreign ministers in Copenhagen. They are expected to discuss a proposal to suspend EU funding to Israeli start-ups as initial punishment for the situation in Gaza, but the bloc has so far failed to garner the majority needed to take that step.

"I'm not very optimistic, and today we are definitely not going to adopt decisions," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told journalists at the start of the meeting.

"It sends a signal that we are divided."

A number of countries in the 27-nation bloc are pushing for more far-reaching punishment for Israel, but have been frustrated by members who back Israel's goal of destroying Hamas.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, insisted the bloc "must change words into action" and that putting pressure on Israel is necessary.

"Israel will have to understand that it must change course," he said before the meeting.

Mr Rasmussen said Copenhagen backed suspending trade co-operation with Israel, sanctioning far-right Israeli ministers, and banning imports from illegal settlements.

Israel is facing pressure at home and abroad to end the war in Gaza, which began after Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel. Hamas and other militant groups from Gaza killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostage during the attack, according to Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 63,025 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza that the UN considers reliable.