Palestinian Authority president to thank Spain for support in visit to Madrid
On way to UN General Assembly, Abbas stops in Spain to meet with its PM and king after first Palestinian ambassador presented credentials there on Monday
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with Spain’s prime minister and king during a two-day visit to the European country that begins on Wednesday, his first since Madrid formally recognized a Palestinian state in May.
Abbas is stopping in Madrid at Spain’s invitation before heading to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, according to an official in his office.
His visit comes after Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, formally recognized a Palestinian state composed of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, on May 28.
Israel condemned their decision, saying it bolsters Hamas, the terrorist Islamist group that led the October 7 attack against Israel that triggered the war in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
Spain’s leftist government then announced that a first bilateral summit between Spain and the Palestinian Authority would be held before the end of the year, and the first Palestinian ambassador to Spain presented his credentials on Monday to Spanish King Felipe VI.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said that the recognition of a Palestinian state is “not against anyone, least of all Israel,” but the move led to a further deterioration in ties between Spain and the Jewish state.
He has been one of the staunchest European critics of Israel’s Gaza offensive since the start of the conflict.
The October 7 attack that sparked the war killed some 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. Terrorists also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still believed to be held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says it has confirmed are dead.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 41,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Sanchez vowed this month to continue to “pressure” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the global stage over the war in Gaza, especially at the International Criminal Court, which in May requested an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Spain, along with other nations, has joined South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice in which Pretoria has accused Israel of “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
“We are going to strengthen our ties with the Palestinian state,” Sanchez said, adding that Madrid hoped “to sign several collaboration agreements” with the Palestinian state at the bilateral summit later this year.
Last week, Madrid hosted a gathering of representatives from European and Arab nations to discuss how to advance a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The international community must take a decisive step towards a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Sanchez said at the time.
