MADRID, Spain — The international community should look at sanctions against Israel to stop the Gaza war, Spain’s foreign minister said Sunday, as European and Arab nations gathered in Madrid to urge an end to its offensive.

Some of Israel’s long-standing allies have added their voices to growing international pressure after it expanded military operations against the Hamas terror group, which rules the Gaza Strip.

An aid blockade lasting almost three months has worsened shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine in the Palestinian enclave, stoking fears of famine.

Even after Israel allowed deliveries to resume last week, aid organizations have said the trickle of supplies entering the Strip falls far short of needs.

The talks aimed to stop Israel’s “inhumane” and “senseless” war in Gaza, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told reporters before the meeting opened.

Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza “massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel,” he added, describing the territory as humanity’s “open wound.”

Representatives from European countries, including France, Britain, Germany and Italy joined envoys from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco, the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Norway, Iceland, Ireland and Slovenia, who like Spain have already recognised a Palestinian state, also took part, alongside Brazil.

After the European Union decided this week to review its cooperation deal with Israel, Albares told reporters Spain would request its “immediate suspension.”

Spain would also urge partners to impose an arms embargo on Israel and “not rule out any” individual sanctions against those “who want to ruin the two-state solution forever,” he added.

Spain is a long-time critic of Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and has outraged Jerusalem by recognizing Palestinian statehood last May.

Tensions escalated last week when Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called Israel a “genocidal state,” while speaking in the Spanish parliament.

The Foreign Ministry responded by summoning the Spanish ambassador to Israel for a dressing down.

Sunday’s meeting also promoted a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said he wanted to “move as fast as possible to a peace where Palestine and Israel can coexist and bring stability and security for the whole region.”

Albares told Cadena SER radio after the summit that the event made progress by including more EU powers like France, Germany and Italy in the format. They would “never give up on peace in the Middle East,” he said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will meet the Palestinian Authority’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, during a trip to Yerevan this next week, his office announced on Sunday.

Barrot spoke with a number of Arab foreign ministers on Sunday to discuss efforts “to restore a diplomatic perspective for a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” his office said.

The diplomatic drive comes one month before a UN conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict chaired by France and Saudi Arabia in New York.

Sanchez has said his country will back draft resolutions at the United Nations aimed at ramping up aid access to Gaza and holding Israel to account over its international humanitarian obligations.

The war broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 58 hostages, dozens of whom are already dead

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.