MADRID (Dispatches) -- Spain will increase pressure on Israel by banning Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from calling at Spanish ports or entering Spanish airspace, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday.
Spain will also increase aid to the Palestinian authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and will impose an embargo on goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, he said.
“We hope that (the measures) will serve to add pressure on prime minister Netanyahu and his government to alleviate some of the suffering that the Palestinian population is enduring,” Sanchez said in a public address aired on local TV.
Spain will also ban anyone who has participated directly in what Sanchez qualified as “genocide” from entering the country.
The move follows growing international condemnation of Israel’s military atrocities in Gaza, which many describe as genocidal. However, Israel’s response was swift and hostile: it accused Sanchez of antisemitism and retaliated by banning two Spanish ministers from entering Israeli occupied territories, reflecting a pattern of deflecting accountability through intimidation and diplomatic coercion.
The backlash against Israel’s actions is not limited to Spain. In Finland, opposition leaders have called for official recognition of Palestine, emphasizing the urgent need for clear foreign policy steps to end the bloodshed in the region. 
France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a UN General Assembly meeting on Palestinian recognition, with countries like Australia, Canada, and the UK also considering joining the growing list of nearly 150 nations that recognize Palestine.
Israel and its closest ally, the United States, vehemently oppose these moves. Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar warned that European recognition of Palestinian statehood would provoke “unilateral decisions” from Tel Aviv, threatening to further destabilize the region. 
Meanwhile, Israel continues to aggressively expand illegal settlements and pursue plans to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank. 
Extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich bluntly warned that any attempt to recognize Palestine would be met with force on the ground. This ongoing expansion, combined with diplomatic obstruction and military violence, undermines any genuine prospects for a Palestinian state. 
The U.S. has also stepped up its efforts to block Palestinian diplomatic initiatives by denying visas to Palestinian officials seeking to attend the UN General Assembly. 
This coordinated international pressure highlights the entrenched system shielding Israel from accountability while perpetuating Palestinian displacement, suffering, and statelessness.