2024-02-14T13:48:04+00:00
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/ The Prime Ministers of Spain and Ireland considered on Wednesday the expanded Israeli military operation in the Rafah area a serious threat, while they called on the European Commission to conduct an urgent review of Israel’s compliance with its human rights obligations in Gaza.
“We are deeply concerned about the deterioration of the situation in Israel and in Gaza, and the expanded Israeli military operation in the Rafah area poses a serious and imminent threat that the international community must urgently address,” they said in a joint letter published by the Spanish government.
“We also remember the October 7 terror, and call for the release of all hostages and an immediate ceasefire that will facilitate the delivery of much-needed humanitarian supplies,” the statement said.
The two countries asked Brussels to “urgently” investigate Israel’s “respect” for human rights in Gaza, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Wednesday via X.
“Given the critical situation in Rafah,” in the southern Gaza Strip, the Spanish and Irish governments have sent a letter to the European Commission asking it to conduct an “urgent investigation into whether Israel is fulfilling its obligations to respect human rights in Gaza,” the Socialist prime minister said in his letter.
Last week, Haaretz reported that the Israeli army had begun investigating dozens of incidents that took place during the current war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which included practices that occurred because “commanders on the ground exceeded their authority,” or “on suspicion of violating international laws of war.”
These investigations come, according to Haaretz, “against the backdrop of the lawsuit filed by South Africa to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, in which it accuses Israel of committing crimes of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
Israel denies the charge. Late last month, the International Court of Justice called on Israel to prevent any act that could amount to “genocide” in Gaza and to “take immediate action” to provide “urgently needed humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.”
In less than a month, Israel must submit a report to the court on its operations in Gaza, and explain how Israel and the army respond when suspicions arise about practices that contravene international law, according to the court’s ruling.
Israel always stresses, within the framework of its insistence that the aim of the war is to eliminate Hamas, that it is committed to international law and does not violate it.