Spain took a further step on Thursday to support peace efforts for the Gaza Strip by announcing that it will ask the highest court of the United Nations to intervene in the open case against Israel for alleged genocide in the war waged against Hamas in the Palestinian territory, according to his Foreign Minister.
Spain is the first country in the European Union to join the case filed last year by South Africa before the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel was violating the convention for the prevention of genocide with a military operation that left large areas of the besieged enclave reduced to rubble.
Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Libya and the Palestinians are waiting for the ICJ to accept their request to intervene in the case being tried at the court’s headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.
At the end of May, the ICJ ordered Israel to immediately stop its military operations in Rafah, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire. In the city, located on the enclave’s southern border with Egypt, more than a million Palestinians fleeing the fighting in the rest of the territory had taken refuge in recent months.
Israel has not complied with the order and maintains that the offensive that began in early May in Rafah, which it considers the insurgent group’s last stronghold, is necessary to achieve its goal of neutralizing Hamas’ military and governance capabilities.
“We made this decision in light of the continuation of the military operation in Gaza,” said the Spanish minister, José Manuel Albares. “Our objective with this decision is for peace to return to the Middle East, and to achieve this it is urgent that we all support the Court.”
Once admitted, Spain will be able to present writings and intervene in public hearings.
Israel denies it is committing genocide in its war in Gaza, which began after the deadly Hamas-led insurgent assault on southern Israel on October 7. The incursion left more than 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, and about 250 hostages. The land and air offensive deployed by Israel in the coastal enclave has claimed the lives of at least 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilian victims and combatants in its count.
Spain’s announcement came hours after an attack by Israeli forces on a school hosting displaced Palestinians in central Gaza that killed more than 30 people, according to local health officials. According to the army, Hamas militants operated from the center.
“Our only objective is to end the war and finally begin to move forward in the implementation of the two-state solution, which is the only guarantee to achieve peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis and for the entire region. “All of them have the right to peace, the same right,” said Albares, who made a new call for a ceasefire, for the “immediate and unconditional” release of the hostages and for the entry of humanitarian aid into the territory.
“What Spain does is not rule on the crime itself, that is a job for the court,” added the minister, who reiterated his government’s support for the peace initiatives presented by the United States — Israel’s main international ally — , Egypt and Qatar, which have acted as mediators since the beginning of the conflict.
Spain’s request is the latest initiative by socialist Pedro Sánchez’s executive to support peace efforts in Gaza.
Spain, Norway and Ireland formally recognized a Palestinian state on May 28 in a coordinated decision between the three Western nations that increased international pressure on Israel. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, said then that, with the recognition, the Sánchez government was “being complicit in inciting genocide against the Jews and war crimes.”
Slovenia, which along with Madrid and Dublin is part of the European Union, followed in the footsteps of its community partners this week.
More than 140 countries have recognized a Palestinian state — more than two-thirds of the United Nations — but none of the world’s major powers, including the United States, have done so.
Last year, the ICJ allowed 32 countries, including Spain, to join Ukraine’s case against Russia for allegedly violating the genocide convention by falsely accusing kyiv of committing it in its eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk and use this argument as a pretext for their invasion.
In the case against Israel, preliminary hearings have begun, but the court’s final decision could take years.
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