EU president Donald Tusk on Tuesday urged a crackdown on the "murderers" among human traffickers, who have killed scores of people trying to reach Europe from conflicts abroad.

"We have to focus on rescuing people's lives and... the fight against human traffickers and smugglers," Tusk said ahead of a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

"In fact we can talk today about murderers because they are directly responsible for the death of thousands of people. Maybe this is the most important thing today."