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MADRID: Spain and Israel’s relations plunged to new depths on Tuesday as Madrid barred two far-right Israeli government ministers, a day after announcing measures aimed at stopping what it called “the genocide in Gaza.”
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich would be sanctioned and “not be able to enter Spanish territory,” Madrid’s top diplomat Jose Manuel Albares told a press conference.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday had unveiled nine measures in response to the devastating war in Gaza, launched after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel in 2023.
The measures included an entry ban on “all those people participating directly in the genocide, the violation of human rights and war crimes in the Gaza Strip.”
Ben Gvir and Smotrich are already the target of sanctions by Western countries including Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway and Slovenia.
Spain had already placed 13 Israeli settlers on its sanctions list.
Monday’s announcement triggered a furious reaction from Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who accused the Spanish government of antisemitism and barred two of its far-left members.
Spain in turn rejected what it called the “slanderous” accusations and recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv. Albares said on Tuesday there was “no scheduled return date” for her.
Relations were already poor, with Spain maintaining outspoken criticism of the Israeli offensive in Gaza and recognizing a Palestinian state last year.
The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages, with 47 still held in Gaza, including 25 believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,605 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

VIRGINIA, USA: A federal appeals court was scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday about an appeal from a US military contractor ordered to pay $42 million for contributing to the torture and mistreatment of three former detainees at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison two decades ago.
Reston, Virginia-based CACI appealed last year’s civil lawsuit verdict to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Suhail Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili and Asa’ad Al-Zubae testified at last year’s trial that that they were subjected to beatings, sexual abuse, forced nudity and other cruel treatment at the prison during the US occupation of Iraq. A jury awarded them $3 million each in compensatory damages and $11 million each in punitive damages.
The three did not allege that CACI’s interrogators explicitly inflicted the abuse themselves, but argued CACI was complicit because its interrogators conspired with military police to “soften up” detainees for questioning with harsh treatment.
CACI supplied the interrogators who worked at the prison. It has denied any wrongdoing and has emphasized throughout 17 years of litigation that its employees are not alleged to have inflicted any abuse on the plaintiffs in the case.
Photos of the abuse released in 2004 showed naked prisoners stacked into pyramids or dragged by leashes. Photos included a soldier smiling and giving a thumbs-up while posing next to a corpse, detainees being threatened with dogs, and a detainee hooded and attached to electrical wires.
Military police seen in the photos smiling and laughing as they directed the abuse were convicted in military courts-martial. But none of the civilian interrogators from CACI ever faced criminal charges, even though military investigations concluded that several CACI interrogators had engaged in wrongdoing.
Last year’s civil trial and subsequent retrial were the first time a US jury heard claims brought by Abu Ghraib detainees in the 20 years since the photos shocked the world.
None of the three plaintiffs were in any of photos but they described treatment very similar to what was depicted.
The $42 million they were awarded fully matches the amount sought by the plaintiffs. It’s also more than the $31 million that the plaintiffs said CACI was paid to supply interrogators to Abu Ghraib.