<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares warned this Monday that the ceasefire violation in Gaza “cannot be repeated” and requires “redoubling efforts for peace” and “maintaining sanctions” against Israel.</strong></h4> “In Palestine, the events we experienced yesterday force us to redouble our efforts for peace, for the defense of international law, for consolidating the ceasefire in Gaza, and for demanding that humanitarian aid continue to enter Gaza unhindered and freely,” Albares declared upon his arrival at the European Union Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) meeting in Luxembourg. Benjamin Netanyahu's government has violated the ceasefire agreement signed on October 13 in Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt) on up to fifty occasions. The most serious violation occurred this Sunday with the Israeli Air Force bombings of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, and Jabalia, in the north, which have caused the deaths of nearly 40 Palestinians. Since the truce went into effect, around 100 Gazans have died from Israeli attacks. The first phase of the ceasefire has been "successful," according to Albares, "in that we have achieved the release of all the live hostages and the return of bodies, something that Spain has long demanded." "We have also seen the release of Palestinian detainees, and the initial humanitarian aid has been allowed to enter, but what we saw yesterday cannot be repeated," he warned. There has been "a violation of the ceasefire, Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip, and a suspension of the entry of humanitarian aid," he denounced. “We have said it from the beginning: of course, what we experienced in Sharm El Sheikh, this first phase, opens a path of hope, but we are very far from what we desire, which is a definitive peace, a permanent ceasefire, humanitarian aid that there is no doubt will enter without any obstacles,” he added. This “moment of hope,” he warned, “as we saw yesterday, is very fragile and under great threat,” and, in this context, “the role of Europe and Spain must be precisely to protect that hope.” Therefore, he asserted, “the sanctions against Israel must be maintained at this time,” because “we have not yet achieved much with respect to the objectives we had set.” “Therefore, we are very far from being able to lift these sanctions,” he insisted. <h5><strong>Ukraine</strong></h5> Regarding Ukraine, the other major topic of the FAC, Albares declined to comment on the upcoming meeting between the presidents of Russia and the US, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, in Budapest. "Of course, they will be the ones who will have to speak," but "what we Europeans have to ask ourselves here today is what we can do, and what we can do is continue providing reliable, permanent, predictable aid to Ukraine, as Spain will do with the delivery of 70 generators in the coming days to help us cope with this harsh winter that is coming, in order to provide electricity."
