The Spanish prime minister’s comments come as Israel has intensified air strikes on Lebanon to hit Hezbollah targets. Its war on Gaza, launched after last year’s Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas militants, has so far killed 41,500 people, many of them civilians.
This week, Israel has also wounded Indonesian and Sri Lankan soldiers from the U.N. peace mission, known as UNIFIL, stationed in south Lebanon. On Thursday, Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said that “could constitute a war crime and represented a very serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
Sánchez’s calls to stop arms deliveries to Israel echo a similar plea made by French President Emmanuel Macron. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, however, pledged this week to send more weapons to the Israeli government.
Israel’s largest weapons supplier by far is the United States, followed by Germany.
European countries have been increasingly divided on how to respond to the tense situation in the Middle East. Spain is among the nations deciding to recognize Palestinian statehood last spring.