Spain says it will ‘work’ with Israel to maintain good ties amid diplomatic feud over war

Spain says it will “work” with Israel to maintain good ties after the Israeli embassy accused some Spanish ministers of siding with Hamas.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares says he has spoken to Israel’s ambassador to Spain amid the diplomatic feud.

“The final conclusion was that we were going to work together so the friendship between Spain and Israel, between the people of Spain and Israel, is maintained, as it has been until now,” he tells a news conference following a weekly cabinet meeting, adding the issue was “settled.”

“In every government there are different opinions, much more so in a coalition government,” the minister says. “The position of the government of Spain at the moment is very clear… We condemn the terrorist attack by a terrorist organization, which is what Hamas is, against Israel.”

Israel’s embassy in Spain said yesterday it was “absolutely immoral” that “certain elements within the Spanish government have opted to align themselves with this ISIS-type terrorism,” in a reference to Hamas.

The statement came following criticism over Israel’s response to Hamas’s attacks from several hard-left ministers in acting Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s coalition government.

Social Rights Minister Ione Belarra of far-left party Podemos on Saturday called on Sanchez to file a lawsuit for “war crimes” against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the International Criminal Court for carrying out a “genocide attempt” in Gaza.