( EurActiv ) — An increasingly acrimonious fight between Spain and Israel over Gaza has spilled into a broader strategic dispute, raising questions about the future of US military operations from bases in southern Spain.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office accused Pedro Sánchez of making “genocidal threats” after the Spanish leader said that Madrid could not stop Israel because it lacked “nuclear bombs, aircraft carriers or large oil reserves.”

Spain’s foreign ministry dismissed Netanyahu’s charge as “false and slanderous,” insisting that “the Spanish people are friends of the people of Israel and the people of Palestine.”

The outburst follows Sánchez’s decision on Monday to ban Israel-bound aircraft and ships carrying military equipment from crossing Spanis

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