Spain’s Premier, Pedro Sanchez has announced a number of new measures aimed at stopping the “genocide in Gaza.”
Among the measures he announced “to stop the genocide in Gaza and to go after its perpetrators” was a law formalising the existing, de facto prohibition on military equipment sales or purchases with Israel, and a ban on the use of Spanish ports and airspace to transport fuel or weapons to the Israeli military.
He said that although Spain has de facto been applying an export ban on weapons to Israel since 2023, the government will now urgently legislate a “permanent” ban.
Sanchez also said those “directly involved in the genocide, violating human rights and war crimes in Gaza” would not be allowed into Spain and announced increases in his country’s humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Other measures include banning imports from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, limiting Spanish consular services to Spanish citizens living in the occupied territories to the bare minimum, and increasing Spain’s presence in Rafah with additional troops and new joint projects with the Palestinian Authority to provide food and medicine.
Spain will also increase its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) by €10 million ($11.7 million) and commit €150 million in additional humanitarian aid for Gaza in 2026.
“We know that all those measures won’t be enough to stop the invasion or the war crimes but we hope that they will serve to add to the pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government, to alleviate some of the suffering of the Palestinian population, and to let the Spanish people know that their country was on the right side of history when it came to one of the most infamous episodes of the 21st century. Spain alone cannot stop the war, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try.”
Pedro Sanchez
Additionally, Sanchez stepped up his scathing criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, accusing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of “exterminating a defenceless people” by bombing hospitals and “killing innocent boys and girls with hunger.”
Speaking on Monday morning to announce the measures, Sanchez noted that while the Spanish government would always support Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself, it felt compelled to try to “stop a massacre.”
“Protecting your country and your society is one thing, but bombing hospitals and killing innocent boys and girls with hunger is another thing entirely.
“What Prime Minister Netanyahu presented in October 2023 as a military operation in response to the horrific terrorist attacks has ended up becoming a new wave of illegal occupations and an unjustifiable attack against the Palestinian civilian population – an attack that the UN special rapporteur and the majority of experts already describe as a genocide.”
Pedro Sanchez
The Spanish Prime Minister pointed to the numbers of dead, injured, displaced and malnourished. “That isn’t defending yourself; that’s not even attacking,” he said, adding, “It’s breaking all the rules of humanitarian law.”
Sánchez also hit out once again at the international community, saying major world powers had ended up “paralysed between indifference over a conflict without end and complicity with the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
Sanchez’s Measures Draw Furious Response From Israel
Sánchez’s comments and measures drew an immediate and furious response from the Israeli Foreign Minister, which accused his administration of deploying “wild and hateful rhetoric” and of using a “continuous anti-Israel and antisemitic attack” to distract from corruption allegations.
“The attempt by Sanchez’s corrupt administration to divert attention from serious corruption scandals through a continuous anti-Israel and antisemitic campaign is transparent.”
Gideon Sa’ar
Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, announced that two senior leftwing Spanish politicians – the Labour Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Yolanda Díaz, and the Youth Minister, Sira Rego – would be banned from entering Israel because of their criticisms of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Sa’ar said it was clear that Díaz – the founder of the Sumar alliance that is the junior partner in Sanchez’s socialist-led coalition government – was “exploiting Prime Minister Sánchez’s political weakness and dragging him, step by step, into implementing her anti-Israel and antisemitic vision.”
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