Overview

• Foreign Minister Gideon Saar sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen urging withdrawal of the proposal, calling it unprecedented, procedurally unfair and liable to empower Hamas.
• The Commission package would freeze EU bilateral support to Israel, halt payments while preserving civil-society and Yad Vashem cooperation, block about €6 million in future annual allocations and suspend roughly €14 million in ongoing disbursements.
• The EU executive also plans to propose targeted measures against what it describes as extremist ministers and violent settlers.
• The College of Commissioners is scheduled to discuss the plan on Wednesday after von der Leyen outlined the approach in her State of the Union address last week.
• Diplomats report the measures face long odds due to sharp divisions among the 27 member states, as the debate unfolds against casualty figures from both sides and a UN-declared famine in parts of Gaza that Israel disputes.