The Foreign Affairs Council is to raise the question at its meeting next week in Luxembourg.

An EU spokesperson said the measures against Israel ‘were proposed in a given context’’ and ‘if the context changes, that could eventually lead to a change of the proposal.’

‘There’s just no reason any more for it. This needs to be totally off the table,’ declares Israel’s new ambassador to the EU.

European Foreign Ministers are set to discuss next Monday in Luxembourg the possibility of removing the sanctions against Israel proposed by the European Commission last month in the wake of the Gaza war.

A ceasefire began in Gaza last Friday as part of the  first phase of a deal agreed by Israel and Hamas under U.S. President Donal Trump’s 20-point peace initiative. 20 Israeli hostages have been released under this first phase after more than two years held in captivity in Gaza but only four out of 28 bodies of deceased hostages were transferred to Israel in a blatant breach of the ceasefire agreement, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

During her State of the Union address in the European Parliament in September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a proposal to partially suspend the EU–Israel Association Agreement and sanction two ministers of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Earlier this year, the Commission had suspended EU funding that supports cooperation with Israel, worth a total of around €14 million, and floated freezing participation in parts of the Horizon Europe research program, a measure that was never adopted due to opposition of several EU member states.

The EU proposed sanctions followed what Brussels described as the catastrophic humanitarian aid situation in Gaza and ater the decision of Israel to expand its military operations in Gaza city.

At the midday briefing on Monday, European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho addressed the possible removal of the sanctions by saying that ‘’they were proposed in a given context’’ and ‘’if the context changes, that could eventually lead to a change of the proposal,” ‘’But we are not there yet,’’ she added. ‘’The goal of the measures was to bring about a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas. We are very, very pleased, as everybody across the world is, to see that we now have a ceasefire, and we want to really see this peace implemented,” she said.

EU spokesperson for foreign affairs Anouar el-Anouni said this will be raised at the meeting of EU foreign ministers next Monday when they will discuss the latest developments of the conflict.

The Europeabn Commission is expected to wait until then before taking a decision as any such proposal  for sanction is to be adopted by a qualified majority of EU member states.

Israel’s EU ambassador ‘optimistic’ that the ceasefire would allow a reset of EU-Israel relations 

In an interview with Politico, Israel’s new ambassador to the European Union Avi Nir-Feldklein called on the EU to lift the sanctions on Jerusalem now that a ceasefire negotiated has begun under Trump’s peace plan.

“There’s just no reason any more for it. This needs to be totally off the table,” he said, adding that he was his ”optimistic” that the ceasefire would allow for a reset in Israel’s relations with the EU.

The ambassador conceded that it had been a “challenging” period for Israel-EU relations. But he downplayed the rift and argued there was now a window “to overcome this short, uncomfortable situation that we have between us right now and to resume the good relations that we had,” given that the peace initiative was underway.

“We cherish very much our relationship with the EU,” the ambassador said. “I’m optimistic because I believe the EU member countries, most of them, would like to see it happening and right now the Trump initiative has started in a very good way and I believe that the EU would like to be part of it.

“And if you want to be part of it, you need, really, to clear the table of what is hanging above our relationship,’’ he added.