Britain, Canada and Australia confirmed on Sunday their formal recognition of a Palestinian state.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer said his country’s move was intended “to revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution”.
The move comes in advance of the UN General Assembly this week. “The hope of a two state solution is fading but we cannot let that light go out,” said Mr Starmer. “Today, to revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution, I state clearly as prime minister of this great country that the UK formally recognises the state of Palestine.”
He added: “In the face of the growing horrors in the Middle East we are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution. That means a safe and secure Israel, alongside a viable Palestinian state. At the moment we have neither.
Mr Starmer said in July that Britain would recognise Palestine unless Israel reached a ceasefire with Hamas, let more aid into Gaza, made clear there would be no annexation of the West Bank and committed to a peace process delivering a two-state solution – a Palestinian state co-existing alongside Israel.
“Since that announcement in July, in fact, with the attack on Qatar, a ceasefire at this point lays in tatters, and the prospects are bleak,” British deputy prime minister David Lammy told Sky News on Sunday, adding that Israel had also moved forward with a settlement plan.
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said in a statement: “Canada recognises the state of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the state of Palestine and the state of Israel.
“Recognising the state of Palestine, led by the Palestinian Authority, empowers those who seek peaceful coexistence and the end of Hamas. This in no way legitimises terrorism, nor is it any reward for it.”
Mr Carney said the Palestinian Authority has provided “direct commitments” to Canada on reforming its governance, to hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas “can play no part” and to demilitarise the Palestinian state.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said his country recognised “the legitimate and long-held aspirations of the people of Palestine to a state of their own”. He said his country’s move formed part of “an international effort for a two-state solution”.
The senior Palestinian diplomat in the UK said Britain’s recognition would correct a colonial-era wrong dating back to the Balfour Declaration supporting the creation of a Jewish state in 1917.
The Palestinian head of mission Husam Zomlot told the BBC: “The issue today is ending the denial of our existence that started 108 years ago, in 1917.
“And I think today, the British people should celebrate a day when history is being corrected, when wrongs are being righted, when recognition of the wrongs of the past are beginning to be corrected, and when taking responsibility of that colonial era, because that era has led us directly to the genocide in Gaza today, and that era has led to the ethnic cleansing of two-thirds of the Palestinian people during the Nakba and during the British mandate.”
Nakba is the term used to describe the mass displacement of Palestinians during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 after the end of the British Mandate.
Mr Zomlot said “the hands of British history” were on the whole conflict.
He added that recognition was a “foundational step” towards establishing a sovereign state of Palestine “and anybody who argues against that is somebody who wants to see us moving backward rather than forward”.
Israeli forces blew up more residential buildings in Gaza City on Sunday, killing at least 31 Palestinians and prompting many others to flee, Gazan health authorities said, as Israel’s tanks pushed further into the densely populated city.
Nearly two years into the war, Israel describes Gaza City as the last bastion of Hamas and the military has been demolishing housing blocks it says were being used by the militant group since launching its ground assault in the city this month.
A pregnant woman and her two children were among those killed on Sunday, medics said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the deaths, issuing a statement saying its forces had killed “numerous” militants.
Relatives sifted through the rubble of one of the apartment buildings that was hit in Gaza City, trying to salvage their belongings.
“The mother, the boy, the girl, and the baby in her womb – we found them all gone,” said Mosallam Al-Hadad, the dead woman’s father-in-law, saying his son had been seriously injured in the strike. “[He] was in a critical condition. We took him to the hospital, and his leg was amputated,” Hadad told Reuters.
Israel said on Saturday its forces had expanded their operations in the Gaza City area over the past few days, killing 30 militants and locating weapons.
On Sunday, witnesses said Israeli tanks were advancing towards the west through Tel Al-Hawa, a southeastern suburb.
The Israeli military estimates that more than 450,000 people have left the city since the start of September. Hamas disputes this, saying just under 300,000 have left and that about 900,000 people remain.
In southern Israel, air raid sirens sounded when Gaza militants fired two rockets across the border, one of which was intercepted and the other fell in an open field, the military said. No casualties were reported.
The offensive has also alarmed families of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza. Twenty of those 48 captives are thought to still be alive.
Thousands rallied on Saturday night outside prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem calling on him to make a deal that will end the war and bring the hostages home.
“I accuse the prime minister of leading us for two years down a dead-end path, toward endless war and abandoning our loved ones. Why?,” said Michel Illouz, whose son Guy was kidnapped from a music festival in the Hamas attacks which triggered the war.
The October 7th, 2023, attacks killed 1,200 people and 251 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s two-year-long campaign has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gazan health authorities, and has spread famine, demolished most buildings and displaced most of the territory’s population – in many cases multiple times. – PA/Reuters