Alex Trelinski
SPAIN’S Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares has slammed Friday’s decision by the Israeli government to escalate their military operations in Gaza.
Israeli forces are getting ready to move into Gaza City- something confirmed by satellite images.
“We strongly condemn the Israeli government’s decision to escalate the military occupation of Gaza, which would only cause further destruction and suffering,” Albares said in a post on the ‘X’ social media platform.
He called for ‘a permanent ceasefire, the massive and immediate entry of humanitarian aid, and the release of all hostages’.
“A lasting peace in the region can only be achieved by implementing the two-state solution, which includes a realistic and viable State of Palestine,” he added.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has demanded in a statement the ‘immediate cessation’ of the plan ‘to take full military control of the Gaza Strip’.
“This new escalation will cause more mass forced displacements, more deaths, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocious crimes,” Turk commented.
Israeli ground operations in Gaza have been ongoing since October 2023 since the Hamas terrorist group crossed over to take or kill Israeli hostages.
The Israeli Security Cabinet on Friday also approved five key principles for concluding the war: dismantling Hamas, securing the return of all hostages—both alive and deceased—demilitarising the Gaza Strip, ensuring Israeli security control over the area, and establishing a civilian government not led by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
This new operation by Israel, expected to last at least six months, comes despite Tel Aviv facing mounting criticism over events in Gaza, where more than 61,200 people have been killed since October 2023.
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