'A massacre' Spain's PM piles pressure on Netanyahu to stop killing civilians

Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has stepped up his scathing criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza, accusing Benjamin Netanyahu's government of "exterminating a defenceless people".

- Sam Jones

Speaking yesterday to announce measures designed to increase the pressure on Netanyahu to stop the military campaign, Sánchez said 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," he said.

"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."

The Spanish PM pointed to the numbers of dead, injured, displaced and malnourished. "That isn't defending yourself; that's not even attacking," he said. "It's exterminating a defenceless people. It's breaking all the rules of humanitarian law."

Sánchez's words and actions rekindled a tit-for-tat diplomatic row between Spain and Israel that culminated with Madrid deciding to recall its ambassador from Tel Aviv yesterday.