An evaluation of the so-called association agreement is to be made, says Foreign Affairs Chief Kaja Kallas at the press conference following the EU countries' foreign ministers' meeting on Tuesday.
Several countries, with the Netherlands at the forefront, have called for an investigation to clarify whether Israel is living up to the human rights provisions in the agreement, which handles trade and cooperation between the EU and Israel.
There was an enormous majority for this. It says that the member states see that the situation in Gaza is unsustainable, notes Kallas.
Israel, in turn, rejects the announcement of the evaluation and urges it to exert pressure on the terrorist-stamped Hamas.
"We reject entirely the direction taken in the statement, which reflects a total misunderstanding of the complex reality Israel is facing", writes the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Oren Marmorstein on X.
Sweden is among the countries that want to see and has also said it wants to work for the introduction of sanctions against Israeli ministers, as a mark against the country's settlement policy.
But the EU countries could not agree on that.
The sanctions against settlers are prepared and we had discussions about it, but unfortunately, it was blocked by a member state, says Kallas – without mentioning which country was against.
Earlier, sanctions have been hindered primarily by the Czech Republic and Hungary.
