Spanish government minister calls situation at Gaza’s Shifa Hospital ‘deeply inhuman’

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Spain’s social rights minister on Monday called the situation in Gaza’s Shifa Hospital “deeply inhuman.”

“It must end NOW!” Ione Belarra posted on social media platform X in response to images showing attempts by local staff to keep premature babies alive despite a lack of functioning equipment due to power cuts and fighting.

On Monday, Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al Qidra reported that 32 people, including three premature babies, had died due to a lack of electricity or fuel in the past three days.

In the besieged hospital’s courtyard, hundreds of corpses are now piled up, Anadolu has reported.

Although Belarra does not dictate Spain’s foreign policy, she has been pressuring Spanish and European leaders to cut diplomatic ties in response to the “genocide” occurring in Gaza.

Separately, in Brussels, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said he would pressure his European counterparts to “speak up for peace and a total and complete protection of Palestine civilians and a strict respect for international humanitarian law.”

Ahead of an informal EU foreign ministers’ meeting, he told the media that he would push for Europe to call for a “humanitarian cease-fire,” boost aid to Gaza, and work toward organizing a peace summit.

Albares said Spain has already tripled its aid to Palestine, but asserted that the aid “must be able to reach the civilian population in Gaza.”

On Monday, Belarra also inaugurated a meeting for international human rights defenders, hosted by the Barcelona-based Center for the Defense of Human Rights (IRIDIA) to discuss the conflict in Palestine.

Over the weekend, around 30,000 people took to the streets in Barcelona, according to organizers, to show their support for Palestine and their condemnation of Israeli attacks.

Tens of thousands more protested in other Spanish cities, from Cadiz in the south to Irun in the north.