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SvennoJ on 25 April 2025
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Spain’s Albares calls for end to war in Gaza and two-state solution

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares has also urged “immediate” entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.

“Israel’s military operations continue to cause death in Gaza and the West Bank,” he wrote on X, adding that among the victims are “thousands of civilians, women, children, and humanitarian workers”.

The top diplomat concluded: “We do not resign ourselves to violence. Peace is possible. A permanent ceasefire and the release of the hostages cannot be delayed.”

Last year, Spain recognised the State of Palestine in a joint move with Ireland and Norway.


Spain halts controversial $7.5m deal to buy ammunition from Israeli company

Spain’s government halted a controversial $7.5m deal to buy ammunition from Israel on Thursday, following criticism from far-left allies within the governing minority coalition.

The country’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, intervened to cancel the deal after Sumar, a group of left-wing parties, threatened to pull out of the governing coalition.

“After exhausting all routes for negotiation, the prime minister, deputy prime minister and ministries involved have decided to rescind this contract with the Israeli company IMI Systems,” a government source, who did not want to be named according to Spanish government practice, told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

To read more on this move and how it fits in with Spain’s criticism of Israel during its war on Gaza, click here.


Norway establishes formal diplomatic relations with Palestine, appoints ambassador

Posting on X, Norway’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik announced that Marie Antoinette Sedin has been appointed as the country’s ambassador to Palestine. Kravik was sworn in by Norway’s King Harald at a ceremony on Thursday.

In May last year, Norway – alongside Ireland and Spain – announced its decision to formally recognise Palestinian statehood based on the pre-1967 borders.

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said Norway’s decision was an investment in the “only solution” that can bring lasting peace in the Middle East – “two states living side by side in peace and security”.


Palestinians in the West Bank seeing ‘strategic erosion’ of rights under Israeli occupation: UK MP

Shockat Adam, an independent member of the British parliament, recently returned from a fact-finding mission to the occupied West Bank and described it as “another Gaza”. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Adam described the “apartheid conditions” that Palestinians are forced to endure under Israel’s decades-long military occupation of their land.

“What we witnessed was a strategic erosion of every faculty of the Palestinian people. The erosion of their social rights, cultural rights, emotional rights, religious rights, and even historical rights,” Adam told Al Jazeera. “It was absolutely alarming for me to see at which rate it has been increased, expedited since October 7 … It’s absolutely dehumanising the people of Palestine,” he said.

Adam said that under the increasing pressure of the Israeli occupation, people in Palestine, who have been a symbol of resilience to the world, are “almost losing the will”. “And this has been happening systematically throughout the whole country, and it is affecting every facet of Palestinian life,” he said.