Borrell had previously announced in a letter to the Israeli foreign ministry that he intends to visit Israel on 14-15 September, Ynet reported on Saturday.

In response, Israel reportedly said the EU's foreign policy chief could not come during these dates, calling on him to coordinate a visit after the Jewish holidays, in late October after Borrell finishes his term.

This development came a few weeks after Borrell called for sanctioning Israeli ministers for hate speech and incitement to war crimes, in another bid to toughen the bloc's response to Israel's war in Gaza.

On 29 August, Borrell told reporters that he "initiated the procedure to ask EU member states if they want to include in our list of sanctions some Israeli ministers who have been launching hate messages, unacceptable hate messages against the Palestinians, and proposing things that clearly go against international law and are an incitation to commit war crimes."

He was speaking ahead of an informal meeting of the bloc's 27 foreign ministers in Brussels.

While Borrell did not name the ministers in question, he has recently expressed outcry over the statements and actions of Israel's Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, who both belong to the far-right, ultra-nationalist wing of Benjamen Netanyahu's coalition government.

In March 2023 before the Gaza war, Israel signalled to Borrell that he was not welcome to visit following critical comments he made about Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank.

Borrell upset Israel with an article published in 2023 saying that "Violence on the part of Israeli settlers in the West Bank is increasingly threatening Palestinian lives and livelihoods — almost always with impunity."

"Moreover, Israeli military operations frequently cause civilian Palestinian deaths, often without effective accountability," Borrell wrote in Project Syndicate.