Spain's interior ministry on Wednesday said a politically embarrassing multi-million-dollar arms purchase from an Israeli company would go ahead after state legal services advised against its attempt to scrap the contract.
Spain's Socialist-led minority government halted weapons transactions with Israel after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and which has devastated the Palestinian territory.
In October last year, the interior ministry said it had launched the process to terminate a deal with an Israeli firm that would have supplied bullets for the Civil Guard.
Ministry sources told AFP on Wednesday that the move had been abandoned following a recommendation by the state legal services "that advised against the cancellation due to the advanced stage of the processing of the contract".
"The cancellation would have meant paying the company without receiving the equipment," the sources added.
According to details of the tender made public, Israeli firm IMI Systems Ltd, represented by Guardian Homeland Security, secured the deal worth 6.8 million euros ($7.8 million).
The far-left Sumar party, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, said the reversal was "a blatant violation" of the government's pledge not to trade weapons with Israel.
The party demanded in a statement the contract's "immediate cancellation" and an explanation from Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, saying the Spanish government's commitment to the Palestinian people "must be absolute".
"Both companies clearly share and promote on their social networks their participation in the committing of war crimes, genocide, and ethnic cleansing," Sumar MP Enrique Santiago told reporters.
The unprecedented attack Hamas launched against Israel from Gaza in 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages in their attack and 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's military response in Gaza has unleashed a humanitarian crisis and killed at least 51,305 people, mainly civilians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
