The Dutch and Swedish governments have written to EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas urging her to increase pressure on Israel to protect the population of Gaza, describing the situation there as “extremely disturbing and intolerable.”

Acting Dutch foreign affairs minister Ruben Brekelmans and his Swedish counterpart Maria Stenergard also accused Israel of failing to implement a July agreement with the EU to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The two ministers said they now “support the suspension of the trade chapter of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and call upon the [European] Commission to put forward a proposal to this end.”

Their letter also calls for sanctions against “extremist Israeli ministers who promote illegal settlement activities, and actively work against a negotiated two-state solution,” as well as further sanctions against “violent settlers” in the West Bank.

The Netherlands has already said it supports sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Brekelmans, a VVD politician, became foreign minister last week after the NSC pulled out of the cabinet in a dispute over the government’s position on Gaza. The then-foreign minister Caspar Veldhoven said he had not received enough support from within the cabinet for extra steps.

The demands in the letter are not new but are seen as an effort to put pressure on other EU leaders ahead of Saturday’s informal summit of foreign ministers in Copenhagen. Ireland has already said it supports the Dutch-Swedish initiative.

The letter also calls for more pressure on Hamas, which it said bears a “heavy responsibility” for the “catastrophic situation” in Gaza.