A report by the EU’s diplomatic corps has found that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip may have violated the terms of the agreement.
Spain will formally request the European Union (EU) to immediately suspend the association agreement with Israel as well as an embargo on arms sales by the EU, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced on Monday.
“It is not the denunciations that are going to stop this inhumane war in Gaza, it is the actions,” Albares reportedly told journalists ahead of an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.
La UE debe de actuar para parar la guerra en Gaza y desescalar en Oriente Medio.
Es el momento de la diplomacia y de la negociación.
Eso voy a pedir hoy el #CAE en Bruselas. pic.twitter.com/F8vjMfiFRT
— José Manuel Albares (@jmalbares) June 23, 2025
He said he would call for “the immediate suspension of the association agreement, an embargo on arms sales by the European Union to Israel, and individual sanctions on all those who want to definitively derail the two-state solution.”
“We cannot look the other way,” Albares stated, adding that the EU “must act when grave violations of international humanitarian law are taking place.”
Increasing Pressure
Spain’s initiative is likely to deepen debate within the EU over its relationship with Israel and could increase pressure on other member states to take a firmer stance on human rights violations in Gaza, Al Mayadeen reported.
The EU and the Ethics of Trading with Israel: What Has Changed?
The EU-Israel association agreement forms the legal basis for political and economic cooperation between the bloc and Tel Aviv.
Human Rights Obligations
A report by the EU’s diplomatic corps has found that Israel’s actions in Gaza may have violated the terms of the agreement.
“There are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement,” the European External Action Service said, citing assessments by independent international institutions, according to Reuters.
“The EU has corroborated UN allegations that Israel is guilty of “indiscriminate attacks … starvation … torture … [and] apartheid” against Palestinians in a leaked “review” https://t.co/I7JNasNTpC pic.twitter.com/MJQAvzeYEM
— Adil Haque (@AdHaque110) June 20, 2025
The report noted that Israel’s “continued restrictions to the provision of food, medicines, medical equipment, and other vital supplies affect the entire population of Gaza present on the affected territory.”
The EU-Israel association agreement, which came into effect in 2000, agreed that their relationship “shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles,” the report said.
Request from States
The report’s findings follow a request by more than a dozen countries for the European Commission to probe the potential political and legal ramifications of Israel’s ongoing military operation in Gaza.
Several Palestinians were killed and others wounded in an Israeli airstrike early Monday morning, Al-Jazeera reported, citing a source at the Nasser Medical Complex.
The attack targeted tents sheltering displaced people west of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.… pic.twitter.com/C0GDtdjvbx
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) June 23, 2025
It includes a section “dedicated to the situation in Gaza, covering issues related to denial of humanitarian aid, attacks with a significant number of casualties, attacks on hospitals and medical facilities, displacement, and lack of accountability,” Reuters reported.
It also looks at the situation in the occupied West Bank, including violence against Palestinians by illegal settlers.
Rising Death Toll
The death toll in Gaza rose to 55,998 on Monday, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, with over 131,000 injuries since October 7, 2023.
Gaza Faces Famine: Lazzarini Warns of Starvation as World Kitchen Restarts Aid
Israel is currently under investigation for the crime of genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are now officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The Israeli genocide has been largely defended, supported, and financed by Washington and a few other Western powers.
(PC, Al Mayadeen, Agencies)
After this very costly multinational involved Warfare waged again, in the middle east, which should and could have found Offramps long ago, at several times before evermore Expanding and threatened the security and has devasted, many regions and countries again, it created also a lot of anger and almost spiralling out of control and got expanded to become a very serious possibility to become nuclear incident, which would have involved Global Nuclear Powers.
It is time to stop this violence before it becomes a global threat. There is enough death and destruction again, Billions lost, many where forced to be involved, sucked in, they had their show of force, all learned hopefully, the dangers
I think as a Jew and a veteran of the ’73 Yom Kippur War, I can offer a different narrative of the mess between the 2 peoples. I wholeheartedly support a 2 state solution but there are more pressing problems that need immediate attention. The population of Gaza are currently starving and need a few hundred trucks a day to address this dire situation. Gaza/Hamas and Israel need a ceasefire and all hostages alive or dead released. The fact remains on 10/7/23 Hamas and others savagely attacked mainly peaceful civilians. Like the hundreds that were killed at a music concert. I do not support Netanyahu or rightwing nutjobs. Calling it a genocide doesn’t solve anything. Sorry, out of characters.
I hope after all, these lost Billions in infrastructure, material, death and destruction and after all, got a serious feeling, over the dangerous situations and evermore spiraling in to more expanding regional warfare, multinational and to the extent where it becomes regional and almost got global nuclear Countries sucked in to the abyss and darkness of a spiral of death and destruction.
By the way after all the Deal for Peace should be:
“The Arab peace initiative, which peace-loving regional countries, should have to sign to settle this, once and for all, to recognise each others, respecting peaceful co-existing and normalize ties to build a peaceful future and prosperity, to end this wars
Gaza is only 10% the size of Rhode Island and Israel is the size of New Jersey. The 2 are very small. There’s no threat of WW3 or a global thermonuclear war. Israel has between 125-200 250 kiloton nuclear weapons (estimates). Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) is a military strategy that if one nuclear-armed country attacks another, both would be completely destroyed in retaliation. US and Russia or Pakistan and India, could never use nukes. For 75 years since the UN recognized Israel as a state, there has been dozens of conflicts. I pray for peace but there’s no indication it will ever happen. The US has a $30tn GDP and spends 4x more on defense then all of the EU combined. The US must lead!