Israel firmly condemned the European Union's backing on Wednesday of the labelling of products from its settlements and summoned the bloc's envoy over the move, the foreign ministry and an EU source said.

"We regret that the EU has chosen, for political reasons, to take such an exceptional and discriminatory step, inspired by the boycott movement, particularly at this time, when Israel is confronting a wave of terrorism targeting any and all of its citizens," the Israeli foreign ministry said. 

An EU source said the bloc's envoy had been summoned.