Israel should be excluded from Eurovision: Spain PM

Madrid: The Eurovision song contest should exclude Israel, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday, expressing solidarity with “the people of Palestine who are experiencing the injustice of war and bombardment”.

Russia did not participate in last weekend’s Eurovision after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, “therefore Israel shouldn’t either, because what we cannot allow is double standards in culture”, said Sanchez.

Two million people are “starving” in the Gaza Strip, with the deliberate blocking of aid driving up the risk of famine, the World Health Organization chief warned Monday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO and other UN agencies stood ready to deliver aid into the Palestinian territory — if and when it is allowed to enter.

Israel has said its blockade since March 2 was aimed at forcing concessions from the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday it was necessary for Israel to prevent a famine in Gaza for “diplomatic reasons” after his government announced it would allow in limited food aid.

“Two months into the latest blockade, two million people are starving,” Tedros said, while 160,000 metric tonnes of food “is blocked at the border just minutes away”.

“The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid, including food, in the ongoing blockade.”

Speaking at the opening of the annual World Health Assembly, Tedros said that increasing hostilities, evacuation orders, shrinking humanitarian space and the Gaza aid blockade were “driving an influx of casualties to a health system that is already on its knees”.

“People are dying from preventable diseases as medicines wait at the border, while attacks on hospitals deny people care, and deter them from seeking it,” he said.