OVIEDO, Spain 

The Spanish government on Thursday called comments made by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “false and slanderous.”

“Spain rejects any form of antisemitism, racism, xenophobia or intolerance,” a Foreign Ministry statement said, noting that the country has granted nationality to 72,000 Sephardic Jews in recent years under special legislation and condemned Hama's Oct. 7, 2023 attack "from the very first day."

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office earlier accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of making “a blatant genocidal threat on the world’s only Jewish state.”

“Apparently, the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of the Jews of Spain and the systematic mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust, is not enough for Sanchez. Incredible,” it posted on the American social media company X.

The post referenced comments Sanchez made Monday, when he said: “Spain, as you know, doesn’t have nuclear bombs, nor aircraft carriers, nor large oil reserves. We alone can’t stop the Israeli offensive, but that doesn’t mean we won’t stop trying.”

That day, Sanchez also announced nine measures aimed at stopping what he called genocide in Gaza, including barring extremist Israeli Cabinet ministers from Spain, imposing a permanent weapons embargo, and banning imports from the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel later accused Madrid of antisemitism and announced it would bar two Spanish Cabinet ministers from entering the country. Spain responded by recalling its ambassador from Tel Aviv.

In Thursday's statement, Spain called for an “immediate end” to what it described as “endless violence in Gaza,” urging Israel to allow blocked humanitarian aid into the enclave and to respect international humanitarian law.

Madrid said it continues to back a two-state solution with “Palestine and Israel living as good neighbors with reciprocal guarantees of peace and security.”

The government also reaffirmed its support for international judicial processes launched since 2023, including investigations by the International Criminal Court into alleged crimes against humanity by Israeli leaders and the genocide case brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice.