On Thursday, May 16, Spain reportedly refused permission to a ship carrying arms to Israel to dock at its port. Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said, “The foreign ministry will systematically reject such stopovers for one obvious reason: the Middle East does not need more weapons, it needs more peace.”

The ship, which started from Chennai and bears a Danish flag, was headed to Israel’s Haifa port. According to a Spanish news outlet, the ship was carrying 27 tonnes of explosive material. Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente said that the permission to call at Cartagena port on May 21 was requested by a cargo ship sailing under Marianne Danica, the flag of Denmark.

The foreign minister also said that any ship carrying arms to Israel will be consistently stopped from docking at Spanish ports. “This is the first time we have done this because it is the first time we have detected a ship carrying a shipment of arms to Israel that wants to call at a Spanish port,” he said.

It is estimated that over 30,000 people have died since Israel’s attack against Palestine on October 7, 2023. According to a United Nations agency, at least 630,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel began its incursion into Rafah on May 7.