U.K. says it will recognize Palestinian state if Israel doesn't allow more aid to Gaza
France also plans to give a Palestine state formal recognition, reflecting Israel's growing isolation over its conduct in Gaza.
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said a final decision will be made in September.
- Starmer recalled his cabinet from summer break to discuss the Gaza crisis.
- The death toll in Gaza reached 60,000, local officials said.
LONDON − Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain was prepared to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the U.N. General Assembly unless Israel takes a number of steps to improve life for Palestinians.
Britain, if it acts, would become the second Western power on the U.N. Security Council to do so after France last week. The moves would reflect Israel's deepening isolation over its conduct in its war against Hamas in Gaza, where a humanitarian disaster has set in and the Palestinian death toll has risen above 60,000.
Starmer said July 29 that Britain would make the move unless Israel took substantive steps to allow more aid to enter Gaza, made clear there would be no annexation of the West Bank, and committed to a long-term peace process that delivers a "two-state solution" − a Palestinian state co-existing in peace alongside Israel.
"The Palestinian people have endured terrible suffering," Starmer told reporters. "Now, in Gaza, because of a catastrophic failure of aid, we see starving babies, children too weak to stand, images that will stay with us for a lifetime. The suffering must end."
Starmer said that his government would make an assessment in September on "how far the parties have met these steps" but that no one would have a veto over the decision.
He made the decision after recalling his Cabinet during the summer holidays to discuss a proposed peace plan with other European leaders and how to deliver more humanitarian aid for Gaza's 2.2 million people.
Successive British governments have said they would formally recognize a Palestinian state when the time was right, without ever setting a timetable or specifying the necessary conditions.
With warnings from international aid agencies that people in Gaza are facing starvation, a growing number of lawmakers in Starmer's Labour Party have been asking him to recognize a Palestinian state to raise pressure on Israel.
The issue came to the fore after President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday France would recognize Palestine as a state in territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.
Israel and staunch supporter the United States blasted France's move, branding it a reward for Palestinian Hamas militants who ran Gaza and whose attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, triggered the war.
At the start of the Gaza war, when Starmer was the opposition leader, he fully backed Israel's right to defend itself. But his stance has shifted to a tougher approach to Israel, especially since his election as prime minister just over a year ago.
His government dropped the previous government’s challenge over arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and it has suspended some weapon sales to Israel.
Last month, Britain sanctioned two far-right Israeli Cabinet ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians.