The lines of action also call for tougher sanctions against Hamas, which the EU considers a terrorist organisation since 2003, by tightening the screw further on its leadership and financing. It says member states should “consider the possibility of a standalone sanction regime”.

Sanctions against ‘’extremist’’ settlers in the West Bank, including visa bans, as well as tougher crackdown on Hamas terrorist group, are among measures to be discussed Monday during a meeting of European Union Foreign Ministers in Brussels.

The war between Israel and Hamas will top the meeting’s agenda.

According to a senior EU official, EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has submitted the member states seven ‘’lines of action’’ with concrete proposals that will be discussed. ‘’These seven lines of action are guiding principles that we have sustained for a long time and we are trying to adapt them to the new situation,’’ he said.

Among the lines of action is to react to ‘’extremist’’ Israeli settlers in the West Bank and restrictive measures against Hamas leaders.

This may include visa bans against extremists attacking civilians.

‘’In the framework of preserving the possibility of a Palestinian state with the West Bank and Gaza we have pointed to the possibility of taking measures against those extremist settlers that are against the two-state solution and the presence of the Palestinians in the West Bank,’’ the senior official said.

‘’We have seen that the Israeli army has not taken due action against these illegal acts. Israel has under international law and as occupying power the obligation to deal with these issues. So we are condiering inside the EU the possibility of taking measures against particular persons, individuazls. The Americans have alreazdy gone ahead with that, we are talking to them. It is important to take these measures in the framework of preserving the West Bank as a Palestinian territory,’’ he said.

The US has already announced it will deny visas to Israeli settlers responsible for undermining peace and security. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo also said this week that his  country “will work with the US” and that “extremist settlers in the West Bank will be banned from entering Belgium.’’ France last month also said last month that  the European Union should consider sanctioning violent Israeli settlers who attack Palestinians in the West Bank. “We believe that the international community has a role to play to end these acts of violence which are extremely destabilizing for the region, but also harm the prospects for a two-state solution,” foreign ministry spokesperson Anne-Claire Legendre said during a briefing.

The lines of action also call for tougher sanctions against Hamas, which the EU considers a terrorist organisation since 2003, by tightening the screw further on its leadership and financing. It says member states should “consider the possibility of a standalone sanction regime”.

“Hamas is an organisation with quite a strong capacity to act. That needs financing, in particular, for its weapons. So it’s obvious that being only a terrorist organisation cannot be, apparently, reason enough for dissuading some people to finance Hamas,” the senior EU diplomat said.

‘’The fact that Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by the EU has a number of implications on how to deal with this organisation, their members, their financing. After the terrible things that happened on the 7th of October we want to make the political and practical point of reinforcing the sanctions against Hamas. We have already on the table some proposals mostly a message to some leaders of Hamas and also to the financing of the organisation. This is already something that has been discussed and we expect that there will be an agreement, but we don’t know yet when,’’ the senior EU official said.