Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has linked the online amplification of misleading claims surrounding July’s mass crossings into Ceuta to networks associated with Russia and Israel, opening a diplomatic dispute over who exploited one of the most serious migration emergencies on the Morocco–Spain border in years.
Sánchez made the claim during an interview with Cadena SER on August 31. He argued that false interpretations of Spanish migration policy circulated before and after the crossings, then said actors connected to Russia, Israel and the international far right had helped spread them to weaken Spain and divide Europe.
The allegation concerns the circulation and amplification of disinformation, not evidence that either country organised the movement of people toward the border. Israel and Russia have denied involvement and demanded evidence.
What Sánchez said about the information campaign
According to Sánchez, smugglers and social-media accounts distorted a Spanish Supreme Court ruling concerning the immediate return of people intercepted after reaching Ceuta by sea. Online posts presented the decision as if Spain had opened the border or guaranteed migrants the right to remain, which the ruling did not do.
He also said Spain’s National Intelligence Centre and National Police had produced situation reports before the July 30 and 31 arrivals, but that those reports did not anticipate the scale of the emergency.
On September 1, Spanish government spokesperson Elma Saiz said the government had evidence that digital forums in Russia and Israel amplified the events in Ceuta in ways intended to increase polarisation. The publicly reported comments did not include a detailed technical attribution report identifying specific state agencies, accounts or operations.
Russia and Israel reject the accusation
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused Sánchez of making a false claim and rejected any Israeli role in the crisis. Russia’s Foreign Ministry also denied involvement and called on the Spanish government to publish supporting evidence.
The European External Action Service has offered a narrower assessment. A spokesperson said EU monitoring identified attempts by Russia to take advantage of the Ceuta crisis on social media, but did not establish that Russia caused the crossings. Publicly available reporting has not produced a comparable EU finding attributing an Israeli campaign.
That distinction matters. Opportunistically amplifying a crisis, coordinating an influence operation and triggering a mass movement across a border are different claims and require different levels of evidence.
How online rumours fed the rush to Ceuta
The crossings followed a wave of posts on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook claiming that access to Ceuta had become easier. Some referred to the Supreme Court decision; others suggested that Spain’s separate regularisation programme for undocumented residents amounted to an open invitation. Neither interpretation accurately described who was eligible to stay in Spain.
Spanish authorities initially estimated that about 50,000 people entered Ceuta from Morocco during the peak of the crisis, while later accounts placed the total above 70,000 over several days. The difference reflects changing official estimates and the difficulty of counting repeated movements in a fast-moving emergency. Most of those who crossed subsequently returned to Morocco, but thousands remained in Ceuta during August as authorities expanded reception, identification and asylum-processing capacity.
The human cost was severe. People attempted to reach the territory by swimming, climbing around border infrastructure or moving through crowded crossing points. Reports from Spanish and international media documented dozens of deaths on both sides of the border.
Madrid says it has no evidence against Morocco
Sánchez separately said Spanish security and intelligence services had no information showing that Moroccan authorities participated in the crisis. He described Morocco’s cooperation as immediate and argued that the response should be built on coordination rather than mistrust.
That position has been challenged by opposition parties and some of the government’s parliamentary allies, who say the scale of the movement makes it difficult to believe that Moroccan authorities had no warning. Morocco has attributed the crossings to trafficking networks, false online claims and confusion over the court ruling.
For Madrid and Rabat, the episode underlines how dependent border management remains on day-to-day cooperation. Ceuta is Spanish territory on the North African coast and one of the European Union’s land borders with Morocco. A disruption on either side can quickly become a humanitarian, security and diplomatic crisis.
What remains unproven
There is broad evidence that misleading information helped persuade people that the border was open or that arrival would provide a route to legal residence. There is also evidence that criminal networks and politically motivated accounts exploited those claims.
What has not yet been demonstrated publicly is the full chain of attribution behind the campaign: who created the earliest false messages, whether amplification was centrally coordinated, and how much it influenced individual decisions compared with poverty, unemployment, smuggling networks and images of others crossing.
Until Spain or the EU releases a detailed assessment, the claims about Russian and Israeli-linked networks should be treated as attributed government findings under dispute—not as a settled explanation for why tens of thousands of people moved toward Ceuta.
- Cadena SER — Pedro Sánchez interview on the Ceuta crisis (31 August 2026): https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/08/31/sanchez-sobre-sus-vacaciones-en-medio-de-la-crisis-en-ceuta-he-trabajado-y-he-descansado-son-mis-derechos-cadena-ser/
- EFE — Sánchez says intelligence services have no information pointing to Moroccan participation (31 August 2026): https://efe.com/espana/2026-08-31/sanchez-ceuta-marruecos-migrantes/
- RTVE — Russia and Israel deny involvement in the Ceuta crisis (31 August 2026): https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20260831/israel-asegura-pedro-sanchez-miente-descaradamente-insinuar-implicacion-crisis-migratoria-ceuta/17207412.shtml
- La Moncloa — Spain requests Frontex, Europol and EUAA support for Ceuta processing (28 August 2026): https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/serviciosdeprensa/notasprensa/interior/Paginas/2026/280826-apoyo-frontex-triaje-ceuta.aspx
- Spanish Government — Sánchez appearance during his visit to Ceuta (31 July 2026): https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/lang/en/presidente/intervenciones/Paginas/2026/20260731-visit-to-ceuta-appearance.aspx
- AP — Runaway online rumours and the Ceuta crossings (4 August 2026): https://apnews.com/article/f3a7f514a7792c39d8b8d5d814fa5158
- Euronews — How misleading information spread during the Ceuta crisis (4 August 2026): https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/08/04/from-tiktok-videos-to-political-claims-how-misleading-information-spread-during-the-ceuta-
- El País — EU says Russia tried to exploit the Ceuta crisis but did not cause it (1 September 2026): https://elpais.com/espana/2026-09-01/bruselas-ve-intentos-de-rusia-de-sacar-partido-de-la-crisis-de-ceuta-pero-afirma-que-no-hay-pruebas-de-que-la-provocara.html
The Morocco Report Newsroom
The central editorial team of The Morocco Report, an independent English-language publication covering Morocco for an international audience.
