Spain to ban Israel-bound shipping, aircraft carrying weapons from its ports, airspace

MADRID: Spain will increase pressure on Israel by banning Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from calling at Spanish ports or entering Spanish airspace, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday.

Spain will also increase aid to the Palestinian authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and will impose an embargo on goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, he said.

"We hope that (the measures) will serve to add pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government to alleviate some of the suffering that the Palestinian population is enduring," Sanchez said in a public address aired on local TV.

Spain will also ban anyone who has participated directly in what Sanchez qualified as "genocide" from entering the country.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a statement on Monday that Sanchez was trying to divert public attention from his domestic corruption scandals and qualified his measures as "antisemitic".

Israel responded by banning Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz and Youth Minister Sira Rego, both from far-left junior coalition partner Sumar, from entering Israel.