Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez spoke with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz to try to defuse tension between the two countries after comments by Sanchez angered Israel for a second time in a week, Reuters reports.

Israel recalled its ambassador to Spain for consultations in Jerusalem yesterday after Sanchez said he doubted Israel respected international humanitarian law and repeated that military action in the Gaza Strip was not acceptable.

Sanchez said he told Gantz — a former defence minister who joined Netanyahu in an emergency unity government last month — by phone that Israel is “a partner and friend of Spain”.

“Israel has the right to defend itself against this terrorist attack, but I reaffirmed that Spain finds the death of civilians in Gaza unbearable and that Israel must comply with international humanitarian law,” Sanchez wrote in a post in X.

Gantz also said on X he had emphasised to Sanchez “that for the sake of Israel’s security, Israeli civilians’ sense of security, and restoring regional stability — terrorist Hamas must be dismantled in Gaza”.