European Union leaders are seeking to assert a stronger diplomatic and political role in Gaza and the occupied West Bank after being left out of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Meeting in Brussels on Thursday, EU heads of state — gathered primarily to discuss Ukraine and Russia — are also addressing the fragile Gaza truce and potential European support for post-war stabilization. The bloc is the largest donor of aid to the Palestinians and Israel’s biggest trading partner.
“It is important that Europe not only watches but plays an active role,” said Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Luc Frieden before the summit, warning that “Gaza is not over; peace is not yet permanent.”
The war has deeply divided the 27-nation bloc and strained relations with Israel to a historic low. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had announced plans in September to pursue sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel to pressure it toward a peace agreement.
That momentum eased following the U.S.-mediated ceasefire deal led by President Donald Trump, but several EU leaders — including those from Ireland and the Netherlands — insist sanctions and trade measures should remain options as violence continues in Gaza and the West Bank. They argue such steps give Europe leverage to push Israel toward restraint.
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Europe as “irrelevant” and accused it of showing “enormous weakness” in the peace process. The EU had no visible role in the ceasefire negotiations and is now scrambling to join diplomatic efforts shaping Gaza’s future.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc must be directly involved in Gaza, “not just pay to support stability and reconstruction.” The EU has pledged humanitarian aid, continued backing for the Palestinian Authority, and potential security support through its West Bank police program — possibly extending it to Gaza as part of the ceasefire’s 20-point stabilization plan.
Brussels has also sought membership in the plan’s proposed “Board of Peace,” a transitional oversight body, according to Dubravka Šuica, European Commissioner for the Mediterranean.
Denmark and Germany have joined the new U.S.-led stabilization mission overseeing the truce, with both nations’ flags raised at the Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel. The EU Border Assistance Mission in Rafah, which began in 2005, has already redeployed 20 security officers from Italy, Spain, and France to the Gaza-Egypt border.
Earlier this year, during the February-March ceasefire, the mission helped more than 4,000 people — including over 1,600 medical patients — leave Gaza before operations were suspended when fighting resumed.
Outside the EU framework, several European nations have taken unilateral actions against Israel. Spain has called the Gaza war a “genocide” and imposed an arms embargo, while Slovenia has enacted its own arms ban. Protests across European capitals have intensified calls to recognize Palestinian statehood, and some broadcasters are even urging Israel’s exclusion from next year’s Eurovision Song Contest.