Hamas hails decision by Spain to block ships carrying arms to Israel
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has hailed Spain’s move to deny docking permission to two vessels transporting weapons to Israel.
In a statement released on Friday, Hamas said the move is “in line with the honorable position of Spain in rejecting the Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip, and to prevent supplying it with weapons to continue its genocide against the Palestinian people.”
Hamas urged the United Nations to pass a resolution that criminalizes and prohibits exporting arms to Israel and forces it to end its campaign of death and destruction the besieged Palestinian territory
Local Spanish media reports said the ships that left New York requested to dock in Spain’s Algeciras port.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the vessels “will not stop in Spain” without providing more details.
Spanish lawmaker Enrique Santiago earlier asked the attorney general to adopt measures “in view of the arrival on the 9th and 14th of this month of two cargo ships from the United States bound for Israel that are going to transit through [the Port of] Algeciras."
He warned that their docking in Spain would constitute a violation of the country's penal code.
In May, Spain decided to ban ships carrying weapons for Israel from docking at its ports as the country doesn't "want to contribute to war."
Spain was among several countries, including Norway, Ireland, and Slovenia, that recognized Palestine as a state in late May.
Spain was also the first European state to back the case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Arms have continued to flow from Western countries to Israel in recent months. The US, Germany, Britain, France and some other Western countries are the main culprits behind lethal arms to Israel.
In 2023, 69% of Israel's arms imports came from the US, according to a report into international arms transfers by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Germany was the second largest, providing 30%. The UK and France were among other minor contributors.
More than 50 countries recently issued a joint letter calling on the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on Israel as the Tel Aviv regime presses ahead with a campaign of death and destruction across the besieged Gaza Strip.
Since Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, the regime has killed at more than 43,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 102,000 others.
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