Spain hosts European, Arab nations to pressure Israel on Gaza

MADRID: The international community should look to sanction Israel to stop the war in Gaza, Spain’s foreign minister said, as European and Arab nations gathered in Madrid on Sunday to urge a halt to its offensive.

Some of Israel’s longstanding allies have added their voices to growing international pressure after it expanded military operations against Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whose 2023 attack on Israel sparked the devastating war.

A two-month aid blockade has worsened shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine in the Palestinian territory, stoking fears of famine.

Aid organisations say the trickle of supplies Israel has recently allowed to enter falls far short of needs.

The talks in Madrid aim to stop Israel’s “inhumane” and “senseless” war in Gaza, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told reporters before the gathering opened.

Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza “massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel”, he added, describing the Strip as humanity’s “open wound”.

“Silence in these moments is complicity in this massacre... that is why we are meeting,” said Albares.

Representatives from European countries including France, Britain, Germany and Italy are joining envoys from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco, the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Norway, Iceland, Ireland and Slovenia, who like Spain have already recognised a Palestinian state, are also taking part alongside Brazil.

After the European Union decided this week to review its cooperation deal with Israel, Albares told reporters Spain would request its “immediate suspension”.

Spain would also urge partners to impose an arms embargo on Israel and “not rule out any” individual sanctions against those “who want to ruin the two-state solution forever”, he added.

Sunday’s meeting will also promote a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is an outspoken critic of the war. He has said his country will back draft resolutions at the United Nations aimed at ramping up aid access to Gaza and holding Israel to account over its international humanitarian obligations.

Madrid’s attempt to rally a wider consensus on the war comes a year after it broke with some European allies by recognising a Palestinian state, infuriating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Palestinian also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed almost 54,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.