Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday called on the international community to stop selling arms to Israel as he condemned attacks by Israeli armed forces on United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon.
Israeli forces opened fire on a helicopter used by UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Friday, wounding two, a UN source said, the third day in a row that peacekeepers have reported Israeli fire on their positions as Israel wages a war against Hezbollah.
None of the Spanish soldiers who were part of the mission were hit, the Spanish Ministry of Defense announced on Friday.
Spain has deployed 650 peacekeepers in Lebanon, with a Spanish general leading the mission.
“Allow me at this moment to criticize and condemn the attacks carried out by the Israeli armed forces on the United Nations mission in Lebanon,” said Sanchez, whose country is critical of Israel in the recent escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, after meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican.
Sanchez said Spain stopped selling arms to Israel in October 2023 and called on the rest of the world to do the same to prevent further escalation in the region.
“I think it is urgent, considering what is happening in the Middle East, that the international community stops exporting weapons to the Israeli government,” said the Spanish leader, according to Reuters.
