Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has urged members of the European Union to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel over its actions in Gaza and Lebanon.
Both Spain and Ireland have been in talks with other EU nations for months over reviewing the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the basis Israel may be breaching the agreement’s human rights clause.
Ireland accuses Israel of trying to stop world from seeing what its troops are doing
It comes as Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin accused Israel of trying to prevent the world from seeing what its troops are doing in Lebanon and Gaza.
Asked what Israel intends in demanding United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers leave their bases on the border between Israel and Lebanon, Mr Martin said: “Essentially to drive the eyes and ears out of south Lebanon and to give itself free rein.”
UNIFIL forces have repeatedly come under attack from Israel over the last week, it has said.
Mr Martin said: “We cannot have an undermining and a chipping away of the status or the credibility or structures of the United Nations and particularly its peacekeeping forces.
“We see what’s happening in northern Gaza, for example, in terms of the necessity of eyes and ears on the ground. The world has really no full picture of what’s happening in Gaza.”
He added: “Israel is essentially now undermining [not only] the United Nations and the United Nations peacekeeping force, but the very rules based international order, and it needs to step back.”
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