Spanish PM urges EU to accept bid to end free trade with Israel

Pedro Sanchez also calls on international community to stop selling arms to Israel after UNIFIL soldiers were hurt in ground offensive in Lebanon

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during the 'World in Progress Barcelona' Forum in Barcelona on October 14, 2024. (LLUIS GENE / AFP)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during the 'World in Progress Barcelona' Forum in Barcelona on October 14, 2024. (LLUIS GENE / AFP)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday urged other members of the European Union to respond to his country’s and Ireland’s request to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel over its actions in Gaza and Lebanon.

For months, Spain and Ireland have been in talks with other EU countries that want a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the basis that Israel may be breaching the agreement’s human rights clause.

The agreement stipulates that free trade between the EU and Israel will be “based on respect for human rights and democratic principles” but does not detail what actions would be considered violations of the agreement.

Sanchez’s comments come days after he urged the international community to stop selling weapons to Israel, citing injuries to members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

Four UNIFIL soldiers were injured on Thursday and Friday by IDF fire as the army was targeting Hezbollah. The IDF said that the two injured on Friday had been warned to take shelter.

A fifth peacekeeper was injured on Friday but the source of the fire is unknown.

A United Nations flag flies in the back of one of the armored vehicles of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) during a patrol around Marjayoun in south Lebanon on October 8, 2024. (AFP)

After the peacemakers were injured, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged UNIFIL to withdraw its forces from the combat zone to prevent Hezbollah from using them as human shields.

Sanchez condemned the comments, saying that UNIFIL would not withdraw its forces.

Spain has deployed 650 peacekeepers in Lebanon and a Spanish general leads the UN mission.

“Let me at this point criticize and condemn the attacks that the Israeli armed forces are carrying out on the United Nations mission in Lebanon,” Sanchez said on Friday when he called for other countries to stop selling arms to Israel.

Sanchez, who has been critical of Israel throughout its war with Hamas in Gaza, said Spain stopped selling weapons to Israel in October 2023 and urged the rest of the world to do the same, claiming it would prevent further escalation in the region.

“I think it is urgent given what is happening in the Middle East that the international community stops exporting weapons to the Israeli government,” he said.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left, and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez embrace after a joint statement at the Moncloa palace in Madrid, Spain, September 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Earlier this year, Spain and Ireland formally recognized a Palestinian state along with Norway in what Sanchez called a decision “for peace, for justice and for coherence.”

Much of the international community has been critical of Israel to varying degrees since its war with Hamas broke out on October 7 last year with the terrorist organization’s surprise attack, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

In response to the massacre, Israel launched a ground offensive in Gaza with the proclaimed objectives of dismantling Hamas and getting the hostages back. The Palestinian enclave has seen much destruction in the year since due to the ongoing warfare.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 42,000 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 as of August 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.

Meanwhile, northern Israel was subjected to near-daily rocket and drone attacks from Hezbollah since October 8, forcing some 60,000 residents to evacuate, in what the Lebanese terrorist organization said was an act of solidarity with Hamas.

In recent weeks, Israel has scaled up its response to Hezbollah’s attacks, beginning with increased airstrikes targeting the organization in which the vast majority of its top leadership, including leader Hassan Nasrallah, was killed and eventually launching a limited ground offensive in southern Lebanon.

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.

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