Spanish PM accuses Israel, Russia of spreading disinformation on Ceuta migrant crisis

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Monday there were signs Russia and Israel had spread disinformation over Spain’s migration policy that triggered last month’s rush of migrants into Ceuta, but no evidence of Moroccan involvement. Israel called the accusation a “brazen lie.”

Over 72,000 migrants irregularly crossed from Morocco into the tiny Spanish territory between July 30 and 31 in an unprecedented surge at one of the European Union’s only two land borders with Africa, prompting alarm across the bloc. At least 100 people died in the attempt, according to Ceuta’s local authorities.

Spanish opposition parties and some human rights groups had accused Rabat of deliberately allowing the mass crossing, an accusation Morocco has denied.

“When people talk and speculate about the participation of Moroccan authorities, I deny this outright,” Sanchez told radio station SER.

Videos on Instagram, TikTok and other social media spread misleading claims that migrants reaching Ceuta by sea could remain in Spain, encouraging thousands to attempt the crossing, Spanish authorities have said.

Sanchez said research by the EU’s diplomatic service, EEAS, had indicated that Russian and Israeli networks had been behind the spread of disinformation in conjunction with far-right networks.

“After July 30 and 31, rumors and disinformation spread on social networks linked to Russia and Israel, and to an ultra-right international that always uses migration to attack both Spain and Europe and divide it,” he alleged.

Sanchez said it was clear that the two countries had used the crisis to criticize Madrid due to dissatisfaction with its position on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, but gave no further details on the evidence he had of their involvement.

In response, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused Sanchez of “lying shamelessly” about Israel to distract from domestic affairs.

“This is a brazen lie,” Sa’ar wrote on X, adding: “Continuing to spread defamatory lies will not distract from Sánchez’s disgraceful failure to manage his country’s affairs.”

Russia’s embassy in Spain and the EEAS did not immediately respond to Reuters’s requests for comment.

Amid the initial crisis, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon scorned the Spanish government online for maintaining “colonial enclaves in Africa,” prompting backlash in Madrid and a public rebuke from Israel’s top diplomat in Spain.

Diplomatic tensions between Madrid and Jerusalem have reached an all-time high in recent years, as it’s been among Europe’s most vocal critics of Israel’s actions in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, atrocities triggered the two-year-long war there.

In May 2024, Spain formally recognized a Palestinian state, joining a growing number of European countries advocating greater international recognition of Palestinian self-determination. Sanchez, a socialist, has been at the forefront of that push, emerging as one of Europe’s leading critics of Israel’s conduct in the war.

Madrid has said between 3,500 and 7,000 migrants remain in Ceuta, while the territory’s right-wing leaders allege it is at least 10,000.

The fate of the migrants has become a major political flashpoint, with Spain’s government facing demands from the conservative opposition and far-right parties for all those who entered, including minors, to be returned to Morocco.

Residents of Ceuta, which has a population of 80,000 people, have held regular demonstrations over what they say are security and hygiene problems linked to the influx.

Sanchez on Monday said that 6,000 spaces at reception centers would soon be available in the territory for migrants, whose status must be verified by the Spanish authorities before any possible return to Morocco.

Police arrested three Moroccan citizens on Sunday for lobbing bottles filled with corrosive liquids against an army patrol in Ceuta, news agency EFE reported, citing police sources. No one was injured in the attack, the report added.

Sanchez also announced that the cabinet would deploy an additional €168 million ($195 million) in emergency funds to reactivate Ceuta’s economy, a figure equivalent to 8% of the enclave’s gross domestic product, on top of €180 million pledged last week for medium-term recovery efforts.