Spain to amend crimes against humanity law

Israel on Friday vowed to quash the Spanish crimes against humanity probe over its 2002 bombing in Gaza by submitting “relevant material” as Spain promised to amend its law in order to prevent any future lawsuits of this kind.

"The Israeli justice ministry will provide the Spanish government with the relevant material," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

But Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also reiterated Israel's criticism of the complaints, according to the statement.

"The justice systems in different countries, including Spain, are being cynically used by politically motivated bodies that have nothing to do with values or the rule of law and only want to criticize Israel," she said.

The ministry said Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told Livni the Spanish government decided to amend the law as soon as possible in order to prevent further such lawsuits.

Spanish judge Fernando Andreu agreed on Thursday to pursue a ‘crimes against humanity’ complaint against seven senior Israeli military figures over the 2002 bombing.

Andreu was acting in line with Spain's assumption of the principle of universal jurisdiction in alleged cases of crimes against humanity, genocide, and terrorism.

The complaint refers to an Israeli air attack on July 22, 2002, on Gaza City which killed a suspected leader of the Islamist movement Hamas, Salah Shehadeh, along with 14 civilians, mainly infants and children.

Some 150 Palestinians were also wounded, according to the allegations.

Andreu said the attack in a densely-populated area "showed signs of constituting a crime against humanity," a judicial source said.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday rejected the complaint as "delirious" and said in a statement that he would do "everything possible to get the investigation dismissed."

The justice systems in different countries, including Spain, are being cynically used by politically motivated bodies that have nothing to do with values or the rule of law and only want to criticize Israel,

Israeli FM Tzipi Livni