Gaza-Israel conflict latest: Netanyahu claims Starmer ‘appeasing terrorists’ over pledge to recognise Palestine unless war ends

Noura, 27, carefully cradled her 11-month toddler while waiting in line to get him screened for malnutrition at CARE’s primary healthcare centre in Deir Al-Balah. He has already missed some of his developmental milestones like crawling and teething.

“My son is supposed to be drinking formula milk, but there is none to offer. I give him an empty feeding bottle just to distract him,” Noura told CARE.

“I am barely able to breastfeed him, my milk has almost dried up because I’m also not eating well.”

Recognising Palestine as a state only serves to reward Hamas for its actions on the 7 October, a Reform spokesperson has said.

The spokesperson told The Telegraph: “Recognising Palestine as a state does little more than reward Hamas for their actions on October 7.

“This decision is being made at the wrong time and is a knee-jerk reaction by Keir Starmer to appease the hard left forces inside and outside of his party.”

Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey has criticised the government’s use of Palestinian statehood as a bargaining chip with Israel.

“Recognition of the state of Palestine should not be used as a bargaining chip,” Sir Ed wrote on X.

“It should have happened months ago. We also need far greater action to stop the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, including fully ceasing arms sales and implementing sanctions against the Israeli cabinet.”

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who now leads the Independent Alliance of MPs in parliament, has responded to Sir Keir Starmer’s Palestinian statehood announcement.

“Palestinian statehood is not a bargaining chip. It is not a threat,” Mr Corbyn wrote on X.

“It is an inalienable right of the Palestinian people.

“Our demands on this shameful government remain the same: end all arms sales to Israel, impose widespread sanctions, and stop the genocide, now.”

Saudi Arabia and France on Tuesday called on countries at the United Nations to support a declaration that outlines “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” towards implementing a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

The seven-page declaration is the result of an international conference at the UN this week – hosted by Saudi Arabia and France – on the decades-long conflict. The United States and Israel boycotted the event.

“We call on you to support this document before the end of the 79th session of the General Assembly by contacting the missions of Saudi Arabia and France in New York,” Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud told the conference on Tuesday.

“Following the ceasefire, a transitional administrative committee must be immediately established to operate in Gaza under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority,” it reads. The Palestinian Authority currently exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under Israeli occupation.

The declaration supports the deployment of a temporary international stabilization mission, mandated by the UN Security Council, and welcomes “the readiness expressed by some member states to contribute troops.”

Keir Starmer’s decision to recognise the state of Palestine – unless, that is, Israel agrees to a Gaza ceasefire – begs a simple question. Not so much “why?” – for decades, a two-state solution that would see a Palestinian homeland established in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem has been the policy of successive UK governments, and one that was voted for, overwhelmingly, in the Commons 11 years ago.

But, rather, how today’s announcement, following an emergency meeting of the cabinet, that the British government – exasperated by the ongoing situation in Gaza and the dwindling prospects of a two-state solution with Israel – will formally recognise Palestine in September, could have been quite so long in the making.

Britain has played a pivotal role in the pre-history of the present Israeli-Palestinian conflict, starting with the 1917 Balfour Declaration. The then British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour’s letter to Lord Rothschild promising support for a “national home for the Jewish people” set our seal on a future Israeli state.

The Independent’s former Jerusalem bureau chief Donald Macintyre writes:

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused his UK counterpart Sir Keir Starmer of appeasing terrorists by warning the UK may recognise the state of Palestine.

Sir Keir’s decision would lead to Hamas threatening Britain, Mr Netanyahu predicted.

“Starmer rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism & punishes its victims,” he wrote on social media.

“A jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW.

“Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”

Last year, Ireland, Norway and Spain recognised a Palestinian state with its borders to be demarcated as they were prior to the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

However, they also recognised that those borders may change in any eventual talks to reach a final settlement, and that their decisions did not diminish their belief in Israel’s fundamental right to exist in peace and security.

About 144 of the 193 member states of the United Nations recognise Palestine as a state, including most of the global south as well as Russia, China and India.

But only a handful of the 27 European Union members do so, mostly former Communist countries as well as Sweden and Cyprus.

The UN General Assembly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine in November 2012 by upgrading its observer status at the world body to “non-member state” from “entity”.

Senate Democrats are imploring president Donald Trump’s administration to step up its role in addressing suffering and starvation in Gaza, with more than 40 senators signing onto a letter on Tuesday.

The letter urges the resumption of ceasefire talks and sharply criticised an Israeli-backed American organization that had been created to distribute food aid.

Addressed to secretary of state Marco Rubio and the Republican president’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, the senators said the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has “failed to address the deepening humanitarian crisis and contributed to an unacceptable and mounting civilian death toll around the organization’s sites”.

Mr Trump on Monday said that the U.S. would set up food centres to address the worsening humanitarian crisis, but he did not offer any details.

Democrats still called for a “large-scale expansion” of aid into Gaza channeled through organizations experienced working in the area.

Democratic senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii said that changes to the way Israel allows aid into Gaza were at fault, adding that it was “not at all credible” to think the Israeli military — one of the most advanced in the world — is incapable of facilitating aid distribution or performing crowd control.

“They made a choice to establish a new way of doing food distribution,” he said. “And it’s not working at all.”