RAFAH, Egypt: The Israeli government said Friday it would summon the Belgian and Spanish ambassadors following remarks by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his Belgian counterpart Alexander de Croo on the war between Israel and Hamas.
The announcement came after the two leaders criticized Israel for the suffering of Palestinian civilians under Israeli military operations in Gaza. Sánchez also called for European Union recognition of a Palestinian state, saying Spain might do so on its own.
Speaking at a joint press conference on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Friday, Sánchez said the time had come for the international community and the European Union to once and for all recognize a Palestinian state. He said it would be better if the EU did it together, “but if this is not the case … Spain will take their own decisions.”
Sánchez was speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt with de Croo. Spain currently holds the EU’s rotational presidency and Belgium takes over in January.
Sánchez reiterated comments made Thursday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the killing of civilians.
“I also reiterate Israel’s right to defend itself, but it must do so within the parameters and limits imposed by international humanitarian law and this is not the case,” Sánchez said. “The indiscriminate killing of civilians, including thousands of boys and girls, are completely unacceptable.”
De Croo did not comment on recognition of a Palestinian state, but said, “first things first, let’s stop the violence. Let’s liberate the hostages. Let’s get the aid inside ... the first priority is help people who are suffering.”
De Croo stressed the need and hope for a permanent cease-fire, adding that this “needs to be built together. And it can only be built together if both parties understand that the solution to this conflict is never going to be violence. A solution to this conflict is that people sit around the table.”
“A military operation needs to respect international humanitarian law. The killing of civilians needs to stop now. Way too many people have died. The destruction of Gaza is unacceptable,” he said.
“We cannot accept that a society is being destroyed the way it is being destroyed,” he added.
Israel later lashed out at the two prime ministers “for not placing full responsibility for the crimes against humanity committed by Hamas, who massacred our citizens and used the Palestinians as human shields.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen instructed the countries’ ambassadors to be summoned for a sharp reprimand. “We condemn the false claims of the prime ministers of Spain and Belgium who give support to terrorism,” Cohen said.
“Israel is acting according to international law and fighting a murderous terrorist organization worse than (the Daesh group) that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares responded to the summon of Spain’s ambassador late Friday.
“The Israeli government’s accusations against the President of the Government and the Belgian Prime Minister are totally false and unacceptable,” he said in a statement. “We categorically reject them.”
Albares said the Spanish prime minister has publicly and repeatedly defended Israel’s right to self-defense and that his tour in the region this week was seeking “a path to peace.”
Israel summons Spanish, Belgian ambassadors following criticism during visit to Rafah
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Israel summons Spanish, Belgian ambassadors following criticism during visit to Rafah
- Sánchez said the time had come for the international community and the European Union to once and for all recognize a Palestinian state
- “A military operation needs to respect international humanitarian law,” De Croo said
Lebanon PM says IMF wants rescue plan changes as crisis deepens
- “We want to engage with the IMF. We want to improve. This is a draft law,” Salam said
- “They wanted the hierarchy of claims to be clearer. The talks are all positive”
DAVOS, Switzerland: The International Monetary Fund has demanded amendments to a draft rescue law aimed at hauling Lebanon out of its worst financial crisis on record and giving depositors access to savings frozen for six years, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said.
The “financial gap” law is part of a series of reform measures required by the IMF in order to access its funding and aims to allocate the losses from Lebanon’s 2019 crash between the state, the central bank, commercial banks and depositors.
Salam told Reuters the IMF wants clearer provisions in the hierarchy of claims, which is a core element of the draft legislation designed to determine how losses are allocated.
“We want to engage with the IMF. We want to improve. This is a draft law,” Salam said in an interview at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos.
“They wanted the hierarchy of claims to be clearer. The talks are all positive,” Salam added.
In 2022, the government put losses from the financial crisis at about $70 billion, a figure that analysts and economists forecast is now likely to be higher.
Salam stressed that Lebanon is still pushing for a long-delayed IMF program, but warned the clock is ticking as the country has already been placed on a financial ‘grey list’ and risks falling onto the ‘blacklist’ if reforms stall further.
“We want an IMF program and we want to continue our discussions until we get there,” he said, adding: “International pressure is real ... The longer we delay, the more people’s money will evaporate.”
The draft law, which was passed by Salam’s government in December, is under parliamentary review. It aims to give depositors a guaranteed path to recovering their funds, restart bank lending, and end a financial crisis that has left nearly a million accounts frozen and confidence in the system shattered.
The roadmap would repay depositors up to $100,000 over four years, starting with smaller accounts, while launching forensic audits to determine losses and responsibility.
Lebanon’s Finance Minister Yassine Jaber, who is driving the reform push with Salam, told Reuters it was essential to salvage a hollowed-out banking system, and to stop the country from sliding deeper into its cash-only, paralyzed economy.
The aim, Jaber said, is to give depositors clarity after years of uncertainty and to end a system that has crippled Lebanon’s international standing.
He framed the law as part of a broader reckoning: the first time a Lebanese government has confronted a combined collapse of the banking sector, the central bank and the state treasury.
Financial reforms have been repeatedly derailed by political and private vested interests over the last six years and Jaber said the responsibility now lies with lawmakers.
Failure to act, he said, would leave Lebanon trapped in “a deep, dark tunnel” with no way back to a functioning system.
“Lebanon has become a cash economy, and the real question is whether we want to stay on the grey list, or sleepwalk into a blacklist,” Jaber added.
