Spanish lawmakers approve Israel arms embargo

Spanish lawmakers on Wednesday approved the enshrinement in law of an arms embargo on Israel that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez introduced to end what he called “the genocide in Gaza.”

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Parliament backed by 178 votes to 169 the decree announced in September by Sanchez, one of the most virulent critics among world leaders of Israel's devastating two-year-old war in the Palestinian territory.

The support of far-left party Podemos, which has four MPs and had criticised the decree, helped swing the vote the leftist minority coalition’s way after days of speculation about their lawmakers’ position.

The government says it had already banned buying weapons from or selling them to Israel since the start of the war, sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli soil on Oct.7, 2023.