International law does not allow for mass evacuation, Sánchez warns Israel

‘Israel has the right to defend itself but always within the limits of international humanitarian law, which does not authorise the evacuation of Palestinians from Gaza, as the United Nations says,’ Sánchez said at a meeting of his PSOE socialist party in the southwestern city of Merida.

‘We condemn, completely and without any hesitation, the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, and also the deaths of Israelis, and we demand the urgent release of all Israeli hostages and captives,’ Sánchez also said, as Israel steps up its response to last week’s bloody incursion by Hamas which left some 1,300 dead.

A massive retaliatory bombing campaign targeting the Islamist group has killed more than 2,200 people in Gaza.

Sánchez lamented that the latest violence has caused ‘such anxiety and instability in the region and in the world’, and urged a solution involving the creation of a Palestinian state.

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said: ‘[I am] alarmed by the humanitarian situation in Gaza. It is urgent to protect the civilian population, allow access to aid and ensure respect for international humanitarian law, including the release of hostages.’

Sánchez heads up a coalition government within which leftist allies of his party have strongly criticised the scale of Tel Aviv’s response to the Hamas attack.

Israel’s order to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip has triggered ‘mass displacement’ towards the southern part of the Palestinian enclave, the United Nations said on Sunday.

Israel has warned 1.1 million Palestinian civilians to leave northern Gaza and a steady stream of families in overloaded cars, trucks and donkey carts have since headed south.

The warning comes before an expected ground offensive a week on from the deadliest attack in Israeli history.

Israel’s military spokesmen have repeatedly said that the army is ready for a ground operation but awaiting a ‘political decision’ on the timing.

Special forces have made forays into Gaza and recovered the bodies of some of the up to 150 hostages feared taken by Hamas. Israel has said it has identified more than 120 captives, while Hamas has claimed 22 have died in Israeli air strikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited front line troops in the south near Gaza on Saturday, wearing a flak jacket. ‘Are you ready for what is coming?’ he said. ‘More is coming.’

España es amante de la paz. Por eso condenamos, con rotundidad y sin ningún tipo de ambages, el atentado terrorista de Hamás en Israel y las muertes de israelíes.

Exigimos la urgente liberación de los rehenes y con la misma contundencia defendemos que Israel tiene derecho a… pic.twitter.com/0KJ2TFrUeC

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) October 14, 2023

ALSO READ: 19-year-old Spaniard confirmed dead after Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.

ALSO READ: EU president calls Hamas attack an ‘ancient evil, terrorism and an act of war’.