Spain's deputy premier calls Israel's strikes on Rafah ‘heinous war crime'

Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz on Monday called Israel's latest attack on Rafah “a war crime.”

“Israel has once again committed another heinous war crime,” Diaz, also the head of Spain's junior governing coalition party Sumar, said on X.

Diaz was referring to Israel's Sunday night attack on Rafah, where medical sources and officials say at least 35 people were killed and dozens injured as Israel targeted homes and a camp for the displaced people.

The Spanish minister, not speaking for the country's official foreign policy stance, called on her government to cut diplomatic ties with the Israeli government.

“We cannot normalize diplomatic relations with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” she wrote. “We should immediately recall our ambassador.”

Diaz added that Spain should support South Africa's genocide case in the top UN court and ensure a total arms embargo.

However, on Monday, Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares also called the recent attacks on Rafah “unacceptable.”

Yolanda Diaz became a major target of the Israeli administration last week after using the controversial slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

After criticism, Diaz clarified that in using the phrase, she means to say she hopes to see two states -- Palestine and Israel -- living in peace and freedom on the entire terrorism.

Even so, on Friday, Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz called her an "ignorant, hate-filled individual," in a post on X, suggesting she should "study the 700 years of Islamic rule in Al-Andalus -- today's Spain,” to “understand what radical Islam truly seeks."

In response to her comments and Spain's move to recognize Palestine, Katz said Israel would prohibit the Spanish Consulate in the occupied East Jerusalem from “conducting consular activities or providing consular services to residents of the Palestinian Authority" from June 1.

Last week, Israel also pulled its ambassadors from Spain, Ireland, and Norway and filmed those nations' ambassadors to Israel as they were forced to watch violent footage from the Oct. 7 attacks.

The three countries have not retaliated diplomatically yet, but are holding strong to their plan to formally recognize the Palestinian statehood on Tuesday.

Outside of Spain, Israel's attacks on Rafah have been widely condemned, from French President Emmanuel Macron saying he was “outraged” to an African Commission head calling the strikes “horrific.”

Even Israel's top military prosecutor Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi told journalists that the “very grave” strikes on Rafah are being investigated.