Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sánchez of making a ‘blatant genocidal threat’ against Israel, triggering a sharp rebuke from Madrid on Friday.
‘I don’t think Netanyahu is exactly the person entitled to lecture anyone while committing the atrocities he is committing in Gaza,’ Spanish defence minister Margarita Robles said in an interview with Antena 3 television.
Her remarks followed a message released by Netanyahu’s office on Thursday, posted on social media platform X (see link below), which alleged that Sánchez had issued a threat to Israel – the latest escalation in an increasingly bitter war of words between the two governments. ALSO READ: Spain-Israel rift widens as Madrid bars far-right ministers, recalls ambassador.
Earlier in the week, the Spanish prime minister unveiled new steps aimed at putting an end to ‘the genocide in Gaza’. These included halting arms sales, banning fuel shipments to vessels supplying the Israeli military, and blocking goods imported from Israeli settlements considered illegal under international law. ALSO READ: Spain imposes permanent weapons ban on Israel, among 8 other measures ‘to stop genocide’ in Gaza.
‘Spain, as you know, does not have nuclear bombs. Nor does it have aircraft carriers or large oil reserves. We alone cannot stop the Israeli offensive, but that does not mean we will stop trying,’ Sánchez said in a speech.
On Thursday, Netanyahu’s office issued a blistering statement in reply.
‘Spanish PM Sánchez said yesterday that Spain can’t stop Israel’s battle against Hamas terrorists because “Spain does not have nuclear weapons”. That’s a blatant genocidal threat on the world’s only Jewish State,’ it read.
The short statement concluded as follows: ‘Apparently, the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews of Spain and the systematic mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust, is not enough for Sánchez. Incredible.’
Spain’s foreign ministry responded within hours, releasing a statement that stressed: ‘The Spanish people are friends of the people of Israel as of the people of Palestine’, while dismissing Netanyahu’s accusation as ‘false and slanderous’.
This latest diplomatic clash extends a dispute that has been simmering for months.
Sánchez, a socialist, has stood out as one of Europe’s harshest critics of Israel’s Gaza offensive, which began after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israeli territory. He is also the highest-profile European leader to describe the conflict as ‘genocide’, and in May last year diverged from many EU partners by formally recognising a Palestinian state.
Since then, Israel has not had an ambassador stationed in Madrid, while Spain this week recalled its own envoy from Israel after Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Sánchez’s government of conducting an ‘anti-Israel and antisemitic campaign’. ALSO READ: Spain’s sports minister: Israeli teams should face same bans as imposed on Russia.
(Main image: Benjamin Netanyahu and Pedro Sánchez meeting in Israel in November 2023 / Moncloa)
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Prime Minister’s Office:
Spanish PM Sanchez said yesterday that Spain can’t stop Israel’s battle against Hamas terrorists because ‘Spain does not have nuclear weapons.’ That’s a blatant genocidal threat on the world’s only Jewish State.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 11, 2025
El Gobierno de España reitera que condenamos inmediatamente el atroz atentado cometido el 7 de octubre por el grupo terrorista Hamas y exigimos desde el primer día la liberación incondicional de todo los rehenes.
🔗https://t.co/RT06La1DuY pic.twitter.com/yFqbJrcLyV
— Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, UE y Cooperación (@MAECgob) September 11, 2025
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