Impatience in Madrid as Pedro Sánchez puts Europe’s inaction on Gaza in the spotlight

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Spain's prime minister admitted that the EU's refusal to hold Israel to account amounts to failure. Plus, Russia's undeniable interference'

Against the scale of civilian slaughter, famine and mounting evidence of war crimes in Gaza, Europe's political leaders have been passive to the point of complicity, argue many human rights advocates and even former high-ranking EU officials.

Now the Spanish prime minister has come close to acknowledging as much. In an interview with the Guardian, Pedro Sanchez characterised Europe's refusal to act against the Israeli government as a moral and political failure that would damage its global credibility for years to come. Sanchez warned that Europe's response to one of the darkest episodes of the 21st century" has been a failure, absolutely".