“The response to Hamas cannot involve the death of thousands of children”

2023-11-23 14:45:46

BarcelonaPedro Sánchez’s trip to the Middle East, the first abroad after his inauguration, started this Thursday with one day to go, if there are no new setbacks, for the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to begin. The Spanish president, who also holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, met in Jerusalem with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the country’s president, Isaac Herzog, and conveyed to them both his condemnation for the October 7 attack by Hamas as the concern for the response of the Jewish state: “The response cannot involve the death of innocent civilians in Gaza, including thousands of children,” he said in his meeting with Herzog .

Sánchez, who this Thursday afternoon is meeting with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas, is traveling accompanied by the Belgian prime minister, Alexander de Croo, who is also present at the meetings. In the meeting with the president of Israel, the Spanish president combined the story of Israel’s right to defend itself with the call to respect international law and end the “humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the terrible suffering of the Palestinians” . In a similar vein, Netanyahu has been told that “terrorism” cannot be fought only with the use of force, according to Spanish government sources quoted by the Efe agency, who claim that he has appealed to the ‘Spanish experience against ETA and has remarked that it is necessary to offer a horizon of peace to the Palestinians.

The reply of Netanyahu, who has invited him to watch a video about the attack by Hamas, has been that the fundamental problem is that the Palestinians do not accept the existence of the state of Israel, they explain from the Spanish executive Herzog, for his part, and despite the more than 14,000 deaths in Gaza under Israeli bombs, has assured that the humanitarian situation in the Strip is “very important” for Israel and that he trusts that the temporary truce agreed with Hamas allow “both to improve the situation and to secure the Israeli military operation”. A truce that is currently expected to last between 4 and 10 days and that Sánchez has opted to extend.

After he pledged in his inauguration speech to work for the recognition of the Palestinian state, the head of the Spanish government has claimed before the two Israeli presidents the so-called two-state solution as “the best way to defeat terrorism ” and ensure Israel’s long-term security. He reiterated, in this regard, the proposal to promote an international peace conference “as soon as possible” to move in this direction. In his opinion, it is the Palestinian Authority that should “take responsibility” for Gaza, which has been ruled by Hamas since 2006.

Sánchez will have the opportunity to convey this message this Thursday afternoon to Mahmud Abbas, with whom he is meeting in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. The trip to the Middle East, which started in Jerusalem with a meeting with the director of the civil commission for crimes committed by Hamas on October 7, Cochav Elkayam-Levy, will end in Egypt. He will also travel there with the Belgian De Croo to hold “conversations” with the country’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and the secretary general of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit.