Spain will present resolution to UN to 'stop killing' in Gaza: PM
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says his country will present a draft resolution to the United Nations’ General Assembly (UNGA) to propose urgent measures to ensure the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza and stop the killing of civilians there.
Sanchez told Spain’s parliament on Wednesday that “the international community cannot remain indifferent to what is happening” in Gaza, where the Israeli regime has been waging a genocidal war on the Palestinian people for the past 19 months.
Sanchez has been one of the most vocal critics of the Israeli regime’s devastating war in Gaza and the subsequent blockade, which has caused shortages of food, fuel, medicine, and water in the territory.
Furthermore, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares announced on Monday that his country will contribute an additional €500,000 (over $560,000) to support UN investigations into human rights violations and war crimes that the Israeli regime has committed in Gaza.
“With the aim of ending these violations of international law and with the desire to ensure accountability, I announce that we will support the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in increasing its investigative efforts into human rights violations and war crimes that may have been committed in Gaza,” Albares told Spain’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.
He pointed to the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza due to Israel’s blockade, and said the situation in Gaza is “totally and absolutely unacceptable,” and that Israel is responsible for “causing an unprecedented famine.”
“The urgent entry of food is necessary to save the lives of innocent Palestinians … The civilian population of Gaza deserves dignity and peace, and Spain demands it and will continue to demand it,” he said.
According to the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Gaza’s population suffers from phase 5 famine.
Phase 5 Famine is the highest phase of the IPC Acute Food Insecurity scale, and classifies an area that suffers from the deaths of two people or four children for every 10,000 people each day due to outright starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.
Last week, Spain participated in oral proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) about the Israeli regime’s humanitarian obligations, as the occupying entity, towards Palestinians.
Spain demanded that Israel comply with humanitarian and international laws, cooperate with the UN and aid organizations, and ensure the provision of the basic needs of the Palestinian people.
Spain has been one of the few European countries that has broken with Western political tradition, infuriated Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and recognized a Palestinian state.
The Gaza Ministry of Health has said that since March 18, when the Israeli regime violated the ceasefire agreement with Hamas and resumed attacks on Gaza, more than 2,500 Palestinians have been killed and 6,800 others have been injured.
