Spain hosts European, Arab nations to pressure Israel on Gaza
MADRID: The international community should look to sanction Israel to stop the war in Gaza, Spain's foreign minister said, ahead of a Madrid meeting of European and Arab nations on Sunday to urge a halt to its offensive. Countries Israel had long counted on as allies have been adding their voices to growing international pressure after it expanded military operations against Gaza's rulers, whose 2023 attack on Israel sparked the devastating war.
A two-month aid blockade has worsened shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine in the Palestinian territory, sparking fears of famine. Aid organisations say the trickle of supplies Israel allowed to enter in recent days falls far short of needs.
Madrid will host 20 countries as well as international organisations on Sunday with the aim of "stopping this war, which no longer has any goal", Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said. Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza "massively, unimpeded, neutrally, so that it is not Israel who decides who can eat and who cannot", he said.
A previous such gathering in Madrid last year brought together countries including Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye as well as European nations such as Ireland and Norway that have recognised a Palestinian state. Sunday's meeting, which also includes representatives from the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, will promote a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After the European Union decided this week to review its cooperation deal with Israel, Albares said "we must consider sanctions, we must do everything, consider everything to stop this war". Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed almost 54,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry.
Rescuers in Gaza said over 22 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Israeli air strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said seven people were killed in a strike on a home in Jabalia, in the north. He added some people were still under the debris, as "the civil defence does not have search equipment or heavy equipment to lift the rubble to rescue the wounded and recover the martyrs".
Two more people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in an attack targeting tents sheltering displaced people around Nuseirat in central Gaza, he added. A strike in the main southern city of Khan Yunis also killed one person, Bassal said. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes.
The military has stepped up its Gaza operations in recent days in what it has described as a renewed push to destroy Hamas. On Saturday afternoon, the military said it had carried out strikes on more than 100 targets throughout Gaza over the past day. Gaza's health ministry said on Saturday that at least 3,785 people had been killed in the territory since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,939, mostly civilians.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's foreign minister on Sunday condemned "atrocities" in Gaza, saying they reflected "indifference and double standards" on the plight of the Palestinian people. "They are a direct result of the erosion of the sanctity of international law," Mohamad Hasan told his counterparts from the regional ASEAN bloc. Mohamad's comments ahead of an ASEAN summit on Monday in Kuala Lumpur come as Israel has stepped up its campaign this month in war-torn Gaza.
The bombardment has drawn international criticism, alongside calls to allow in more aid after Israel only partially eased a total blockade imposed on March 2. "The atrocities committed against the Palestinian people continue to reflect indifference and double standards," Mohamad said. "ASEAN cannot remain silent," said Mohamad, whose country holds the rotating chairmanship of the bloc.
Foreign ministers from the 10-member association in February asserted their "longstanding support" for Palestinian rights. Malaysia has no diplomatic relations with Israel and many in the Southeast Asian country support the Palestinians. Kuala Lumpur has channelled donations and humanitarian aid amounting to more than $10 million to Palestinians in Gaza since the war erupted in October 2023. — AFP
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