In his first interview since the European parliamentary elections, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called on international allies to hold his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu accountable for the ‘bombings’ and ‘military intervention’ in Gaza.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said it is crucial for the international community to add “more pressure” on the Israeli government to bring the war in Gaza to an end “once and for all”.
Sánchez added that the Southern Europe joined the South African government-sponsored case of bringing Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In January, the court ordered Israel to take measures to prevent any acts of genocide in Gaza.
“It is obviously not up to me to say whether or not it is genocide, but in any case I can assure you that I have serious doubts the Netanyahu government is respecting international humanitarian law,” Sánchez said in an interwiew with Spanish Entrevista news program.
The leftist politician said he believed Israel was not complying with certain United Nations Security Council resolutions and precautionary measures handed down by the prosecutor of the ICJ “to stop the bombings and the military intervention in Rafah”.
“Unfortunately, we are not seeing this from Netanyahu’s government,” Sánchez said.
“That is why I believe it is very important to add more pressure from the international community so that this war ends once and for all. This is the position of the Spanish government”.
In May, Sánchez announced news his government would recognise the Palestinian state in a “historic decision.” The same decision was soon followed by Ireland and Norway also recognising Palestinian sovereignty.
Interview off the back of European parliamentary success
The remarks were part of the leader’s first major interview since his Socialist Party held firm over the weekend at the European parliamentary election.
While most other national government parties seemed to crumble, Sánchez’s left-wing group secured 20 seats out of the 61 allocated to the country. But the party did not drum up the most public support – the right-wing People’s Party scooped up the lion share of European Parliament’s 22 seats.
Far-right Vox party finished third with six lawmakers, up from the four it had in the previous legislature, and the new far-right party “Se Acabo la Fiesta” (SALF) will enter the European Parliament with three seats.
“Unfortunately, in Spain, we have not only one far-right but two,” Sánchez said.
