European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced plans to seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel over its military campaign in Gaza, a major shift away from the pro-Israel line she had largely taken since the war began. The Los Angeles Times report says she made the announcement in Antwerp and then defended it in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Von der Leyen’s language was unusually forceful. She said the suffering in Gaza had “shaken the conscience of the world” and added that man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. She also said the Commission would freeze support to Israel given by the EU’s executive branch, while leaving some work with Israeli civil society and Yad Vashem untouched. The message was that the EU wanted leverage, not a complete rupture.

The proposed package is broad. It would seek sanctions against far-right Israeli cabinet members and West Bank settlers, a partial suspension of the Association Agreement that underpins EU-Israel relations, and a halt to bilateral support in relevant areas. Because the European Union is deeply split over Gaza, the report says it is unclear whether a majority will support the measures, but the public shift itself is already politically significant.

The backdrop to the announcement is a war that has grown more costly and more visible. The article links the move to protests across European cities, to criticism that Brussels has not done enough to pressure Israel and to the warning that Gaza City residents had been told to evacuate ahead of an Israeli push on what it said was Hamas’s last major stronghold. The EU’s action is being presented as a response to both the humanitarian toll and the political pressure from its own citizens.

The response was predictable. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said von der Leyen had succumbed to pressure that would embolden Hamas, while Amnesty International called the proposals shamefully late. The EU’s split remains the central obstacle, but the fact that the Commission president is now publicly backing sanctions and a trade review suggests Gaza has become not only a battlefield issue but also a test of Europe’s willingness to use economic power against one of its closest partners in the region.

The proposal’s importance may lie as much in symbolism as in immediate policy. The EU remains divided, and that means nothing happens automatically. But by publicly linking Gaza’s humanitarian disaster to trade, funding and sanctions, von der Leyen has moved the argument from moral criticism to economic pressure. Even if member states dilute the plan, the shift shows how much the war has changed Europe’s political center of gravity.