Ceasefire does not grant Israel impunity for Gaza genocide: Spain's PM

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has stressed that the recently signed ceasefire between the Hamas resistance movement and Israel must not come at the expense of accountability for the “genocide” in Gaza.

“Peace cannot mean forgetting; it cannot mean impunity,” Sánchez said in an interview on Tuesday, underscoring that justice for Palestinian victims must remain central to any post-war framework.

"Those who were key actors in the genocide perpetrated in Gaza must answer to justice, there can be no impunity," he added when asked about the possibility of legal proceedings against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In November last year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for  Netanyahu and his former war minister Yoav Gallant over committing war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Sanchez also reaffirmed that Spain's arms embargo on shipments to and from the Israeli-occupied remains in place.

"We will maintain this embargo until the process is consolidated and definitively moves towards peace," he said.

The remarks come as a 20-point Gaza proposal, put forward by US President Donald Trump earlier this month, includes a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a prisoner exchange, and provisions for humanitarian aid.

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Spain as one of the most vocal critics of Israel's genocide in Gaza, announced in September that its prosecutor would investigate "serious violations" of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory in coordination with the ICC.

Sanchez recently declared a series of measures that he said were aimed at preventing Israel's genocide in Gaza. 

The measures include the denial of Spanish airspace to flights transporting military material to the Israeli-occupied territories.

They also included an entry ban on “all those people participating directly in the genocide, the violation of human rights and war crimes in the Gaza Strip.”

Additional measures include an embargo on goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

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Sanchez also suggested Spain could take part in future efforts to secure peace and aid reconstruction in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Several members of the Spanish government have publicly supported the pro-Palestinian movement in the European country.

Sanchez has condemned Europe’s double standards regarding Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine war, calling the international response to the genocide “a failure.”

He described the reaction to Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza as “one of the darkest episodes of international relations in the 21st century.”

Spain’s stance marks a broader foreign policy shift in recent years, deepening after Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza began on October 7, 2023.

Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 67,913 people, mostly women and children.

Palestinian officials say thousands of more bodies are under the debris following the devastating two-year long brutal Israeli aggression. 

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