The Spanish government has canceled a contract worth nearly 700 million euros ($825 million) for Israeli-designed rocket launchers, according to an official document seen Monday by AFP.
The move comes after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced last week that his government would “consolidate in law” a ban on military equipment sales or purchases with Israel over its offensive in Gaza.
The contract, awarded to a consortium of Spanish companies in October 2023, involved the purchase of 12 SILAM rocket launcher systems, derived from the PULS platform made by Israeli firm Elbit Systems, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance.
The SILAM launch system can fire a variety of rockets up to a range of 300 kilometers (some 186 miles).
Elbit would have received 150 million euros ($176.3 million), the Globes outlet reported.
The cancellation, first reported by local media and Haaretz, was formalized on Spain’s official public contracts platform on September 9.
The day before, Sanchez unveiled measures aimed at stopping what his leftist government called “the genocide in Gaza.”
They included approval of a decree imposing a ban on military equipment sales or purchases with Israel due to its military offensive in Gaza, launched after the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.
Spain applied the ban as Israel stepped up its military onslaught.
Spain also formalized the cancellation of another contract for 168 anti-tank missile launchers, which were to be manufactured under license from an Israeli company.
That contract, valued at 287 million euros ($337.5 million), was first reported by the press in June.
According to Spanish daily La Vanguardia, the government is undertaking a broader review to phase out Israeli weapons and technology from its armed forces.
The Barcelona-based Delas Center, a security research institute, estimated in April that since the start of the Gaza war, Spain had awarded 46 contracts worth $1.044 billion to Israeli companies, based on public tender data.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas, launched in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre that killed some 1,200 people and saw another 251 taken hostage, has left much of Gaza in ruins and created what aid agencies say is a deepening humanitarian catastrophe.
Sanchez has emerged as one of Europe’s most outspoken critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza policy. He is the most senior European leader to have called the fighting in Gaza a “genocide.”
Relations between the two countries have been tense for months.
Israel has not had an ambassador in Spain since Madrid recognized the State of Palestine in 2024.
Last week, Spain recalled its ambassador to Israel after heated exchanges over Sánchez’s new measures.
It also summoned the Israeli chargé d’affaires in Madrid after Netanyahu on Thursday accused his Spanish counterpart of issuing a “blatant genocidal threat” against Israel, when Sanchez lamented not being able to use nuclear weapons against the Jewish state to stop the Gaza war.
Sports in Spain have also been drawn into the political fray in recent weeks. Several stages of the Vuelta a España cycle race in Bilbao were cut short after pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli protesters disrupted events and demanded that the Israel-Premier Tech team be excluded.
And last week, seven Israeli chess players who were registered for a Spanish tournament all withdrew from the event, said the organizers, who had told the players they would not be competing under their national flag, citing the conflict in Gaza and expressing solidarity with the Palestinians.