British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a statement inside No. 10 Downing Street on the day the Cabinet was recalled to discuss the situation in Gaza, in London, Tuesday.
Toby Melville/Pool Reuters/AP
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Toby Melville/Pool Reuters/AP
The United Kingdom will recognize a Palestinian state by September unless Israel commits to peace in the Gaza Strip, stopping the annexation of the West Bank and other measures, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday.
This follows an announcement last week by French President Emmanuel Macron that France plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Prime Minister Starmer said he has long supported negotiations to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel — known as a two-state solution — to help resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“With that solution now under threat, this is the moment to act,” Starmer said in an address. “So today, as part of this process towards peace, I can confirm the U.K. will recognize the state of Palestine by the United Nations General Assembly in September unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term, sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.”
Starmer also called on Hamas — the militant and political organization that runs Gaza — to release the hostages it seized in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which prompted a full-scale Israeli military invasion of Gaza. He said Hamas should “sign up to a ceasefire, disarm and accept they will play no part in the government of Gaza.”
The announcement came as international alarm has grown over starvation and deaths in the Gaza Strip, after nearly 22 months of war between Israel and Hamas in the territory. The war began with a Hamas-led attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which prompted a full-scale Israeli military invasion of Gaza. A United Nations-backed food security group on Tuesday warned that the “worst-case scenario of famine” is unfolding, as the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the war topped 60,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The Israeli government swiftly opposed Britain’s move to recognize Palestinian statehood. “The shift in the British government’s position at this time, following the French move and internal political pressures, constitutes a reward for Hamas and harms efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of hostages,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
More than 140 countries, including several in Europe, already recognize Palestinian statehood. The U.K. and France would be the biggest Western powers — members of the Group of Seven leading economies — to do so.
The U.K. announcement follows a meeting Monday between Starmer and President Trump in Scotland, where the two discussed the war in Gaza and mass starvation in the territory as top issues.
When asked if Starmer should join France in recognizing a Palestinian state, Trump told reporters: “I’m not going to take a position, I don’t mind him [Starmer] taking a position. I’m looking for getting people fed right now.”
After French President Macron announced his government would recognize Palestinian statehood, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media it was a “reckless decision that only serves Hamas propaganda.” In a statement, the State Department said moves like France’s were “counterproductive gestures” that undercut U.S. diplomatic efforts on the war in Gaza.