Spain has refused to give permission to a ship loaded with arms headed to Israel, the country's Transport Minister Oscar Puente said Thursday, amid genocide concerns.
The Marianne Danica was carrying a cargo of arms to Israel and had requested permission to call at Cartagena on May 21, Puente said on X.
It was carrying nearly 27 tons of explosive material from India's Chennai, El Pais reported.
The Foreign Ministry, which Puente said denied the authorization, did not immediately reply to repeated requests for comment.
Danica Maritime, the company managing the Marianne Danica, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The reports come amid a spat between the ruling Socialists and their hard-left partners over allowing the transit of vessels carrying arms to Israeli ports.
Irene Montero of the far-left Podemos party announced that her party filed a complaint in Spain's National Court to block the ship from leaving.
She added that the court has opened preliminary proceedings to ensure that the military material on the ship is not going to be "used in a genocide."
U.N. Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, even joined the debate, writing that the ship poses a challenge to "Spain's stance on human rights," but adding that she "trusts in the peoples of Spain" to "make sure that an effective arms embargo on Israel is progressively and fully enforced."
Spain has banned arms sales to Israel shortly after Oct. 7.
This shipment came under suspicion on Wednesday when Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel (BDS Murcia) released documents suggesting the ship may be carrying arms bound for Israel.
BDS Murcia and the Solidarity Network Against the Occupation of Palestine (RESCOP) called for a protest in the Spanish port of Cartagena for Thursday evening.
More than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and almost 79,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities in Tel Aviv's war on Gaza.
International organizations, including U.N. agencies, have demanded a cease-fire in Gaza and increased humanitarian aid access to address medical shortages, hunger, thirst, and hygiene deficiencies leading to diseases in Gaza. The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
