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MADRID: Spain will probe “human rights violations in Gaza” to assist the International Criminal Court, which has sought arrest warrants for top Israeli officials over alleged war crimes, the attorney general said Thursday.
The announcement marks another step by Spain, a virulent critic of the devastating Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory, to lead international action over the conflict, sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel in 2023.
Spain’s top prosecutor, Alvaro Garcia Ortiz, has “issued a decree to create a working team tasked with investigating violations of international human rights law in Gaza,” his office said in a statement.
The investigative team’s mission will be to “gather evidence and make it available to the competent body, thereby fulfilling Spain’s obligations regarding international cooperation and human rights,” it said.
“Faced with the current situation in the Palestinian territories, all evidence, direct or indirect, that can be gathered in our country” on “crimes committed” in Gaza “must be included” for potential use in the ICC case, it added in the decree.
The statement mentioned a Spanish police report which recorded “acts that could constitute crimes against the international community” perpetrated by the Israeli army in Gaza.
The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
Spain has also joined a case before another world court, the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Both Hague-based courts have faced fierce criticism from Israel and its allies over the cases.
In February, the United States slapped sanctions on the ICC, saying it had “abused its power” with the Netanyahu arrest warrant.
Israel has challenged the 125-member state ICC’s jurisdiction in the case.
Spanish-Israeli relations have soured over the conflict, with Israel withdrawing its ambassador to Madrid last year after Spain recognized a Palestinian state.
Last week, Spain recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv after Israel’s foreign minister accused the government of antisemitism.
The row followed measures announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez which he said aimed to “stop the genocide in Gaza.”

An increase in cases of a rare but fatal form of encephalitis has put authorities in India’s southern state of Kerala on alert, forcing them to step up testing to address what they say is a serious public health challenge.
Kerala has reported around 69 cases of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) since the beginning of this year including 19 deaths following contact with Naegleria fowleri, commonly known as the “brain-eating” amoeba, the state health minister told the state assembly on Wednesday.
Three of the deaths occurred in the last month, including that of a three-month old infant.
“Unlike last year, we are not seeing clusters linked to a single water source. These are single, isolated cases, which has complicated our epidemiological investigations,” minister Veena George was quoted as saying by NDTV news.
Last year, the state reported 36 cases of PAM and nine deaths, NDTV said.
Amoebic encephalitis is a rare but lethal central nervous system infection caused by free-living amoebae found in freshwater, lakes and rivers, showed a Kerala government document.
Of the two types of amoebic encephalitis, primary amoebic encelphalitis has been found in Kerala, and is caused by Naegleria fowleri, the document showed.
The government has begun chlorinating wells, water tanks and public bathing areas, and areas where people are likely to bathe and come in contact with the amoeba, NDTV reported.
Globally, the survival rate of PAM is around 3 percent but because of advanced testing and diagnosis, Kerala has achieved 24 percent, George has been quoted as saying in local media.
“Climate change raising the water temperature and the heat driving more people to recreational water use is likely to increase the encounters with this pathogen,” the government said in the document, which was published last year.