Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday denounced what he called the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians in Gaza, drawing an angry response from Israel which said the remarks gave terrorism a boost.
Speaking on a visit to Gaza’s Rafah border with his Belgian counterpart Alexander De Croo, Sanchez also called for a lasting humanitarian ceasefire “to reverse the catastrophic situation that the people of the (Gaza) Strip are going through.”
“The indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, including thousands of boys and girls, are completely unacceptable,” he said.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen later issued a statement accusing Sanchez and De Croo of “false claims” that “give terrorism a boost” and said he had summoned the Spanish and Belgian ambassadors to explain the comments.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also weighed in, saying the two European leaders had failed to spotlight what he called Hamas’ crimes against humanity.
“Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu strongly condemns the remarks made by the Belgian and Spanish prime ministers for not placing the full responsibility of the crimes against humanity committed by Hamas, who massacred our citizens and who use the Palestinians as human shields,” a statement by Netanyahu’s office said.
The incident unfolded shortly before Hamas on Friday freed 24 hostages during the first day of the Gaza war’s first truce, including Israeli women and children and Thai farm workers. The truce was the first halt to fighting in seven weeks of combat.
A day earlier, Sanchez visited Israel and met Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, and floated the idea of an international peace conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to forge a viable Palestinian state.
Prospects for reviving peace talks have been frozen since the last U.S.-brokered round collapsed in 2014.
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