Spain PM labels Gaza situation ‘genocide’

AFP | Gaza City

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Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez yesterday became the most prominent European leader to describe the situation in Gaza as a “genocide”, as rescuers in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory said Israeli forces killed 56 people.

After more than 20 months of devastating conflict, rights groups say Gaza’s population of more than two million face famine-like conditions.

Israel began allowing supplies to trickle in at the end of May following a blockade of more than two months, but distribution has been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect rations.

Israel meanwhile is pressing its bombardment of the territory, in a military offensive it says is aimed at defeating militant group Hamas -- whose unprecedented October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.

Spain’s Sanchez said Gaza was in a “catastrophic situation of genocide” and urged the European Union to immediately suspend its cooperation deal with Israel.

The comments represent the strongest condemnation to date by Sanchez, an outspoken critic of Israel’s offensive who is one of the first European leaders, and the most senior, to use the term “genocide” to describe the situation in Gaza.

Speaking ahead of an EU summit in Brussels, Sanchez mentioned an EU report which found “indications” Israel was breaching its rights obligations under the cooperation deal, which forms the basis for trade ties.

The text cited Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory, the high number of civilian casualties, attacks on journalists and the massive displacement and destruction caused by the war.

The spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, said Israeli forces killed 56 people yesterday, including six who were waiting for aid in two separate locations.

The Israeli military said its troops had “fired warning shots” in order to prevent “suspects from approaching them” near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, where Palestinians gather each night for rations.