Spain has recalled its ambassador from Israel after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of antisemitism, following Madrid’s latest measures against the Jewish state.

On Monday, Sánchez unveiled new policies targeting Israel over the war in Gaza, including an arms embargo and a ban on certain Israeli goods.

The Spanish government announced it would bar entry to individuals involved in what it called a “genocide against Palestinians,” block Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from Spanish ports and airspace, and enforce an embargo on products from Israeli communities in the West Bank.

“Protecting your country and your society is one thing, but bombing hospitals and killing innocent boys and girls with hunger is another thing entirely,” Sánchez said during a televised speech.

“What [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu presented in October 2023 as a military operation in response to the horrific terrorist attacks has ended up becoming a new wave of illegal occupations and an unjustifiable attack against the Palestinian civilian population – an attack that the UN special rapporteur and the majority of experts already describe as a genocide,” the Spanish leader continued.

“That isn’t defending yourself; that’s not even attacking. It’s exterminating defenseless people. It’s breaking all the rules of humanitarian law,” he said.

Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas started the war on Oct. 7, 2023, when they invaded southern Israel from neighboring Gaza, murdered, 1,200 people, and kidnapped 251 hostgaes while perpetrating widespread sexual violence against the Israeli people.

Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Saar announced sanctions against two Spanish ministers, accusing the government in Madrid of antisemitism and of pursuing an escalating anti-Israel campaign aimed at undermining the Jewish state on the international stage.

“The government of Spain is leading a hostile, anti-Israel line, marked by wild, hate-filled rhetoric,” Saar wrote in a post on X, accusing Sánchez’s “corrupt” administration of trying to “divert attention from grave corruption scandals.”

“The obsessive activism of the current Spanish government against Israel stands out in light of its ties with dark, tyrannical regimes — from Iran’s ayatollahs to [Nicolás] Maduro’s government in Venezuela,” the top Israeli diplomat continued.

In his post, Saar announced an entry and contact ban on Spanish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor Yolanda Díaz and Minister of Children and Youth Sira Rego.

He accused both ministers of promoting antisemitic rhetoric, citing multiple examples of statements calling for Israel’s destruction and endorsing violence against Israeli citizens in the aftermath of the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“It is no longer possible to avoid imposing personal sanctions on members of the Spanish government who have crossed every red line,” Saar wrote.

“Not every criticism of Israeli policy constitutes antisemitism. However, when such criticism is characterized by demonization, delegitimization, and double standards — it is antisemitism, according to the IHRA definition,” he added, referring to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) widely adopted definition of antisemitism. “Statements by members of the Spanish government, and its policy as a whole, fall squarely into this category. This is antisemitism.”

Earlier this year, Spain urged the European Union to suspend its association agreement with Israel — a pact governing the EU’s political and economic ties with Jerusalem — to protest what it calls human rights violations in Gaza.

The Spanish government has also pressured the EU to approve an arms embargo on Israel and to impose sanctions on individuals accused of undermining the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

One of Spain’s most recent anti-Israel initiatives came after an EU-commissioned report accusing Israel of committing “indiscriminate attacks … starvation … torture … [and] apartheid” against Palestinians in Gaza during its military campaign against Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group.

According to the report, “there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations” under the 25-year-old EU-Israel Association Agreement.

While the document acknowledges the existence of violence by Hamas, it states that this issue lies outside its scope — failing to address the Palestinian terrorist group’s role in sparking the current war.

Israeli officials have slammed the report as factually incorrect and morally flawed, noting Hamas embeds its military infrastructure within civilian targets and Israel’s army takes extensive precautions to try and avoid civilian casualties.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Spain has become one of Jerusalem’s fiercest critics, a stance that has only intensified in recent months.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has actively pushed for anti-Israel measures on the international stage, while portraying himself as a dedicated supporter of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocities, Spain halted arms shipments from its own defense companies to Israel and launched a diplomatic campaign to curb the country’s military response.

At the same time, several Spanish ministers in the country’s left-wing coalition government issued pro-Hamas statements and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with some falsely accusing Israel of “genocide.”

Last year, Spain officially recognized a Palestinian state, claiming the move was accelerated by the Israel-Hamas war and would help foster peace in the region. However, Israeli officials described the decision as a “reward for terrorism.”

Israel has accepted a Gaza ceasefire proposal from US President Donald Trump, Israel‘s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference with his Hungarian counterpart in Budapest, Saar said that Israel was ready to accept a full deal ending the war that would include the release of hostages and Hamas laying down its arms.

According to a senior Israeli official, the latest US proposal calls for Hamas to return all 48 remaining living and dead hostages on the first day of a ceasefire, during which negotiations would be held to end the war.

Hamas said it was studying the latest US ceasefire proposal, delivered on Sunday with a warning from President Donald Trump that it was the Islamist terror group’s “last chance.”

The war began with an assault by Hamas-led fighters on southern Israel in October 2023. The attackers killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages to Gaza. Most of the hostages were released in ceasefires in November 2023 and January-March 2025, but the Palestinian terrorist group has kept others as a bargaining chip.

Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in Gaza.

Time is running out in talks between the UN nuclear watchdog and Iran on how to fully resume inspections in the Islamic Republic, the watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday, adding that he hoped the discussions would conclude within days.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has not had access to Iran‘s key nuclear facilities since the United States and Israel bombed them in June. Iran passed a law after the attacks suspending cooperation with the IAEA and saying any inspections had to be approved by its Supreme National Security Council.

The IAEA and Iran are now in talks on the “modalities” of a full resumption of inspections, though Grossi says that does not alter Iran‘s duty to allow verification measures such as inspections as a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“There is still time, but not much. Always enough when there is good faith and a clear sense of responsibility,” Grossi said in a statement to a quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors.

“Progress has been made. It is my sincere hope that within the next few days it will be possible to come to a successful conclusion of these discussions in order to facilitate the resumption, the full resumption, of our indispensable work with Iran,” he added.

Their talks are taking place against the backdrop of Europe’s top three powers having initiated a 30-day process on Aug. 28 to re-impose sanctions on Iran. The curbs were lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that unraveled after President Donald Trump pulled the US out of it in 2018.

Those three powers – France, Britain and Germany, known as the E3 – have said they will go ahead with re-imposing sanctions under the so-called “snapback” process unless IAEA inspections fully resume in Iran, and Tehran accounts for its large stock of near-weapons-grade uranium and resumes nuclear talks with the United States.

“I am confident that with these practical steps [on inspections] in place, other important diplomatic consultations and processes will find a more promising ground upon which to advance towards positive outcomes,” Grossi said, apparently referring to broader diplomacy such as Iran-E3 discussions.

In Tehran, Iran‘s foreign ministry said the talks with the IAEA were “positive” but had not yet reached a conclusion and that no specific time frame was determined for the next round of talks.

“On Saturday, the third round of negotiations ended and their results are currently being reviewed in Tehran by relevant authorities and we will announce the next steps when this review is finalized,” ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told a weekly press conference on Monday.