BRUSSELS: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday described the situation in Gaza as a “catastrophic situation of genocide” and called on the European Union to immediately suspend its cooperation agreement with Israel.
Sanchez’s remarks, delivered ahead of an EU summit in Brussels, mark his strongest criticism yet of Israel’s ongoing military genocide in Gaza.
Referring to a recent human rights assessment by the EU’s diplomatic service, Sanchez said the report highlighted severe violations, including restrictions on humanitarian aid, high civilian casualties, attacks on journalists, and widespread displacement and destruction.
The report found signs that Israel may be breaching its human rights obligations under the EU-Israel association agreement, which forms the legal foundation for trade and political cooperation.
“It is more than obvious that Israel is not complying with its obligations,” Sanchez told reporters. “The European Union must suspend the agreement immediately.”
He also criticized what he described as a double standard in EU foreign policy, pointing out that while the bloc has imposed 18 rounds of sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, it has taken no comparable action against Israel.
Suspending the agreement would require unanimous approval from all EU member states — a move seen as unlikely due to deep divisions within the bloc over the Israel-Palestine conflict.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least 56,156 people — mostly civilians — have been killed since the start of the Israeli military campaign. The United Nations has said it considers those figures credible.
