The EU on Tuesday added Yahya Sinwar, the political leader of Hamas in Gaza, to its terrorist sanctions list in response to the group's cross-border attack in Israel last October.
The sanctions, effective immediately, freezes Sinwar's alleged funds and other financial assets in EU member states, and prohibits EU operators from making economic resources available to him.
Sinwar served 22 years in prison until he was released along with more than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier in 2011.
Israel declared war on Gaza after the group's Oct. 7 offensive, believed to have killed 1,200 people and taking a further 240 hostage.
Israel's bombardment of Gaza has so far killed more than 24,000 people, most of them women and children, and displaced 1.9 million of the enclave's more than 2.2 million inhabitants. The attacks have also led to acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine.
Addressing reporters at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday, UN chief Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern about the "unprecedented" level of civilian casualties and the "catastrophic" humanitarian conditions in the enclave.
"There is one solution to help address all these issues. We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire," he stressed.
