MADRID: Spain, one of the most critical voices in Europe of Israel’s offensive against Hamas, welcomed a ruling by the United Nations’ top court on Friday that Israel should act to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.

“We welcome the decision of the International Court of Justice and ask the parties to apply the provisional measures it has decreed,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on social network X, the former Twitter.

“We will continue to advocate for peace and an end to war, the release of hostages, access to humanitarian aid and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, so that both nations coexist in peace and security,” he added.

Diplomatic tensions between Israel and Spain have soared following repeated remarks by Sanchez and other top members of his government criticising Israel’s military campaign in Gaza that came in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack.