Belgium's federal government approved the import ban during its final cabinet meeting before the summer break. The decision was reported by the Belgian News Agency (Belga).

The ban fulfils a pledge made in response to the scale of Israel's military operations in Gaza. It follows a Global Echo Litigation Center investigation into Israeli agricultural exports to Europe.

The investigation found that nearly one in five shipments to EU countries contained goods from settlements in the occupied West Bank or Golan Heights. Exporters were found to have obscured the origin of produce through mislabelling and false shipping addresses.