Spain will not sell arms to Israel 'as long as current situation continues': Minister

By Serife Cetin

NEW YORK (AA) - Spain will not sell arms to Israel "as long as the current situation continues," said Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Friday.

During a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York, Albares said no new arms sales license was given to Israel after Oct. 7.

Stating that Spain announced that it will provide €3.5 million ($3.7 million) in financing to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Albares noted that Spain is looking at how this can be increased in the short term.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas. The ensuing Israeli war has killed more than 29,500 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.