Spain will join South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice accusing the Zionist entity of genocide in Gaza, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares announced on Thursday.

Making the announcement, Albares said, “We made this decision in light of the continuation of the military operation in Gaza.” “We also observe with enormous concern the regional extension of the conflict,” he said in a news conference.

Spain took the decision to not only “let peace return to Gaza and the Middle East” but also due to its commitment to international law, Albares said.

“Our sole goal is to put an end to the war and to advance on the road of applying the two-state solution”, Albares said, a week after Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, recognized the state of Palestine.

People search through the rubble of a collapsed building in the eastern side of the Maghazi camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on April 15, 2024 (Photo by AFP).

Spain is the second European nation after Ireland to join the case, which has also been joined by countries including Chile and Mexico.

In December of last year, South Africa filed a case against the Israeli regime over the war in Gaza, declaring that ‘Israel’ was in breach of its obligations under the Genocide Convention.

Last month, the court ordered ‘Israel’ to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and do more to help civilians, although it stopped short of ordering a ceasefire as requested by South Africa.

Judges at the opening of the hearings at the ICJ in The Hague (Thursday, January 11, 2024). In response to an emergency request filed by South Africa, the ICJ also ordered the Zionist entity to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” The Israeli regime has faced increasing international criticism in recent weeks, as it launched a military operation in the southern part of Gaza, where a majority of displaced people from the center and the north of the Strip had escaped to take refuge from the fighting in those areas.