09/22/2025September 22, 2025France among countries expected to recognize Palestinian state
Several countries are planning to recognize a Palestinian state at a summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York that is seeking to revive the two-state solution.
The UN summit “for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” takes place ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, placing the matter firmly under the spotlight amid an intensified Israeli offensive in Gaza.
France‘s President Emmanuel Macron is hosting the UN conference jointly with Saudi Arabia, starting at 3 p.m. local time (1900 GMT), to promote the two-state solution.
“They want a nation, they want a state, and we should not push them toward Hamas,” Macron told CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Macron said the move would help isolate Hamas, who led the attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023 in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and over 250 were taken hostage.
Israeli military operations since then have killed over 65,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in Gaza according to the Palestinian territory’s Health Ministry.
The death toll, while not distinguishing between combatants and civilians killed, is considered reliable by the UN.
Several countries recognizing Palestinian statehood
On Sunday, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia became the first major Western economies to recognize Palestinian statehood.
The move is facing strong opposition from the United States and Israel.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the recognition moves do not “promote peace, but on the contrary further destabilizes the region and undermines the chances of achieving a peaceful solution in the future.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Sunday that there would be no Palestinian state, and vowed to speed up the creation of new settlements.