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Starmer: UK will recognize Palestinian state without Israeli ceasefire



British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday said the United Kingdom is prepared to recognize a Palestinian state if Israel fails to take immediate action to end the war in the Gaza Strip. 

Starmer gave the deadline of the United Nations General Assembly in September, following a move by French President Emanuel Macron, who announced Paris’s recognition of a Palestinian state at the leaders-level summit next month. 

“I’ve always said that we will recognize a Palestinian state as a contribution to a proper peace process at the moment of maximum impact for the two-state solution, with that solution now under threat, this is the moment to act,” Starmer said, delivering remarks to a rare summertime Cabinet meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza.

Starmer called for the Israeli government to take “substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long term sustainable peace” within a two-state solution. He called for Israel to allow the U.N. to restart supply of aid in Gaza and make no move of annexations in the West Bank. 

“Meanwhile, our message to the terrorists of Hamas is unchanged, but unequivocal, they must immediately release all of the hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, disarm and accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza,” he said. 

International recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations is largely a symbolic move and is unlikely to advance in the U.N. Security Council if the U.S. exercises its veto. Only a Security Council vote can admit Palestine as a member-state with voting power in the General Assembly. 

Still, the move is a significant demonstration of the frustration among Israel’s closest allies at the devastation wrought in the Gaza Strip. The nearly two-year war was launched after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Hamas continues to hold 20 living hostages and 30 bodies.

But the Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll in the strip surpassed 60,000 people this week, and starvation is stalking the population amid severe Israeli constraints on the supply of food and aid into the territory. 

Following Macron’s announcement last week to recognize a Palestinian state, Israel announced it would scale up humanitarian assistance deliveries but put the blame on Hamas as the obstacle to a ceasefire deal and responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe in the strip. 

“Neither international conferences disconnected from reality nor unilateral statements at the UN will lead to peace,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said in a statement last week, criticizing France’s decision on Palestinian statehood and a conference promoting the two-state solution. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed off support for a two-state solution, and has said Palestinians could exercise self-governance but that Israel must retain full security control.

President Trump, who has blamed Hamas for failing to come to a ceasefire agreement, has recognized starvation in the Gaza Strip and said the U.S. would work to scale up humanitarian deliveries, but he has deferred to Netanyahu over whether he supports an independent Palestinian state.

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