Gaza War: Sánchez speaks of “catastrophic genocide situation”

Against the background of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez asked the European partners to immediately suspend their association agreement with Israel. A “catastrophic genocide situation develops in the Gaza strip,” said Sánchez on Thursday before the EU summit began in Brussels. The civil protection controlled by Hamas, meanwhile, accused Israel of killed 56 people in the Palestinian area on Thursday.

Sánchez referred to a report by the European Foreign Service (EAD) on the situation in the Gaza Strip, which was presented on Monday at the meeting of the EU Foreign Minister. “On the basis of the assessments of the independent international institutions,” there are indications that “Israel could have violated his human rights obligations,” the paper says.

The political dialogue between the EU and Israel was agreed in an association agreement in 2000. Article two of the agreement states that the relationship between the contracting parties is based on respect for human rights and democratic principles.

Several EU countries, including France and the Netherlands, had asked the EU Commission in May in view of the Israeli blockade of aid deliveries in the Gaza Strip to check the agreement with a view to compliance with human rights. The Federal Government in Berlin strictly rejects a review of relationships with Israel. International aid organizations had accused Israel to use hunger as a weapon against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced its first delivery of medical relief supplies in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The nine truck loads, among other things, are only “a drop in the ocean”, said WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in online service X. The relief supplies are to be distributed to hospitals in the Gaza strip in the next few days.

The Hamas Civil protection accused Israel of killed at least 56 people in new attacks in the coastal area on Thursday. Among the victims are also six people who would have waited for the issue of relief goods in two different locations, said the spokesman for the civil protection authority controlled by the radical Islamic Hamas, Mahmud Bassal. The Israeli army initially refused to comment and pointed out that it needed further information.

The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by Hamas’s brutal major attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. According to Israeli information, more than 1210 people were killed, 251 people were deported to the Gaza Strip as hostages.

Since then, Israel has been in the coastal strip in a massive militarily. According to the Hamas Health Authority, more than 56,200 people have so far been killed.