​Hungary and the Czech Republic are blocking European Union moves to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers who attack Palestinians in the West Bank, diplomats quoted by Reuters said on Friday.

Representatives of Budapest and Prague, staunch allies of Israel, made it clear on Thursday in the EU committee that they are currently not ready to support a proposal in this regard, four diplomats said on condition of anonymity, according to Agerpres.

A compromise could be found later, for example after new EU sanctions against Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement responsible for the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the current Middle East crisis, the sources said.

While international attention has focused on the October 7 attack and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, European officials have also expressed serious concern about the escalation of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The US and Britain have expressed similar concerns and have already imposed sanctions on settlers they believe are responsible for the violence, and in December EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said he would propose similar measures.

However, EU sanctions require the unanimity of the bloc’s members, but an agreement has not yet been reached: some states strongly support Israel, while others are more pro-Palestinian.

According to the discussed proposals, about ten individuals or organizations will be sanctioned, the diplomats said. It is not clear what the sanctions will be, but according to some officials, they will include a ban on travel to the EU.

According to diplomats, the EU has already imposed sanctions on Hamas after the October attack, and others are being prepared.

On Wednesday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó, quoted by the MTI agency, said that it was “obviously not the time” to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers, and that, according to Budapest, the EU’s attention should be focused on providing support to Israel to defeat Hamas and release the hostages.

For his part, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said that his country “substantially” does not block sanctions against settlers who incite violence, but does not want to link them with measures against Hamas.

“A terrorist attack is not at the same level as the actions of the colonists. There are things that cannot be linked,” said the Czech minister.

For its part, France, which supports sanctions against settlers and is expected to soon impose an entry ban on two or three people, hopes that once these measures are adopted, European partners will be more willing to go further.

“Once we impose sanctions, we will see how others react,” said a French diplomatic source.