In the midst of the truce that began this Friday between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group has shown its gratitude to the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sanchezand the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, after his statements during his visit to the region. “We appreciate De Croo’s clear and bold stance, which he affirmed his rejection of destruction of Gaza and the murder of civilians; and from the Spanish Pedro Sánchez, who condemned the indiscriminate killings of the occupying State against civilians in the Strip, and pointed out the possibility that his country unilaterally recognizes the Palestinian stateif the European Union does not take this step,” Hamas said in a statement. The trip of the two leaders through Israel, Palestine and Egypt has become the greater exercise of opposition to the actions of the Jewish State by Western leaders since the conflict began.
De Croo and Sánchez gave a press conference on Friday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, shortly before the release of the first Israeli hostages, in which they urged Hamas to hand over all captives, and Israel to fulfill its obligations. in matters of international law. “The time has come for the international community and the EU to once and for all recognize the State of Palestine,” said Sánchez, who announced that Spain could “make their own decisions“if the EU does not take that step. On this matter, Hamas today called on “all countries in the world” to stand “on the side of justice and the Palestinian cause”, support “these bold stances and intensify them against the occupation“, demand an end to “their aggression and genocidal war against the Palestinian people” and hold their leaders “accountable for their crimes against children and defenseless civilians.”
“False accusations”
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Following the words of the European leaders, Israel called the ambassadors of both countries for consultations. “We condemn the false statements of the prime ministers of Spain and Belgium that support terrorism“, denounced the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eli Cohen. “Israel is acting in accordance with international law and fighting a murderous terrorist organization worse than the Islamic State that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity; we will resume fighting after the ceasefire until the elimination of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip and the liberation of all those kidnapped,” he insisted. After the press conference in Rafah, the Israeli Foreign Ministry yesterday summoned the ambassadors to Israel of Spain and Belgium, Ana Sálomon Pérez and Jean-Luc Bodsonrespectively, for a “harsh reprimand conversation.”
The Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, with whom they met last Thursday, also expressed his disapproval of the words of Sánchez and De Croo. “The comments They did not attribute full responsibility to Hamas for the crimes against humanity that he perpetrated: massacring Israeli citizens and using Palestinians as human shields,” said the Hebrew leader. The Israeli Ministry has not revealed when the meeting with the ambassadors of Spain and Belgium will take place, but it will foreseeably be on Sunday or Monday. In response, both Spain and Belgium have also summoned the Israeli ambassadors to meetings. “The accusations are totally false and unacceptable and we categorically reject them,” said the Spanish Foreign Minister. Jose Manuel Albares, who added that his department is analyzing “the timely response.” According to Albares, the accusations of the Government of Israel “are especially serious” because they are directed against the current president of the EU Council (Sánchez) and the prime minister of the country that will occupy the EU Presidency from January 1 (De Croo).