The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas today positively valued the “clear and bold” position that the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander de Croo, adopted on the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip during the joint trip that they carried out to Israel and Palestine.
“We value the clear and bold stance of the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, who rejected the destruction of Gaza and the death of civilians, and of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, who condemned the indiscriminate killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip by the occupying regime and pointed out the possibility that his country would make a unilateral decision to recognize the Palestinian State if the European Union does not take this step,” Hamas said in a statement.
He also took the opportunity to call on the international community to “stand on the side of justice for the Palestinian cause” and the right to “self-determination” to establish an “independent State,” according to the text that the movement disseminated on networks. social.
Along these lines, Hamas demanded an end to the “genocidal war” started by Israel and asked that Israeli leaders “be held accountable for their crimes against children and defenseless civilians,” according to the Europa Press news agency.
Sánchez and De Croo undertook a two-day joint trip to Israel and Palestine last Thursday to address the current conflict in the Gaza Strip after the Hamas attack against Israeli territory on October 7, as well as the humanitarian situation in the enclave. .
The incursion of the Palestinian Islamist movement left 1,200 dead and more than 240 hostages kidnapped, including twenty Argentines.
In response, Israel began an air and land offensive in the Gaza Strip that left almost 15,000 Palestinians dead, according to the latest report provided by Hamas.
During the course, yesterday Sánchez opened the door for his country to unilaterally recognize Palestine as a State if other partners of the European Union (EU) did not reach a consensus on the issue, when speaking from the border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on the first day of the humanitarian truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
From Rafah, Sánchez declared that “the time had come for the international community and especially the EU to make a decision on the recognition of the Palestinian State.”
“It would be worth it and it would be important for us to do it together,” said the Spanish president, but added that “if that does not happen, of course, Spain will make its own decisions” and asked that the humanitarian truce be “permanent.”
De Croo also hoped that “other border crossings” would be opened to allow aid to enter Gaza, “also on the border with Israel, not only on the Egyptian one.”
In response to the statements of Sánchez and De Croo, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the ambassadors of the two countries after emphasizing that the prime ministers “gave support to terrorism” and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, José Manuel Albares, summoned to the Israeli ambassador in Madrid to give “explanations” for the “unacceptable and false” accusations of the European leaders.
For his part, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, “roundly” condemned the statements of Sánchez and De Croo, considering that neither clearly pointed out Hamas for the crimes committed.
On Thursday, Sánchez met with Netanyahu and stated that Spain empathized with Israel for having suffered “decades of terrorism,” but declared that weapons are not the only answer and reiterated that while Israel “has the right” to defend itself from attacks by Hamas must abide by international humanitarian law.
Source: Ambito
