LONDON: Britain and Portugal are expected to formally recognise a Palestinian state on Sunday ahead of a key week at the United Nations General Assembly.
A growing number of longtime Israeli allies have shifted their positions in recent months as Israel intensified its Gaza offensive following Hamas’s unprecedented 2023 attack.
The besieged Palestinian territory has suffered vast destruction and death alongside severe food shortages that have resulted in a major humanitarian crisis.
World leaders will gather for a crucial debate at the UN General Assembly in New York this week where the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be front and centre.
Around 10 nations are expected to recognise a Palestinian state in the coming days with UK media reporting that Prime Minister Keir Starmer would announce the policy shift on Sunday over fierce Israeli objection.
Starmer had said in July that Britain would formally recognise the State of Palestine if Israel did not take substantive steps towards a ceasefire with Hamas by the time the UN General Assembly convened.
The Labour leader stated at the time that the move would make a contribution to a proper peace process at the moment of maximum impact for the two-state solution.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by accusing him of rewarding monstrous terrorism and appeasing jihadist ideology.
Portugal’s foreign ministry confirmed on Friday that it would also formally declare its recognition on Sunday.
Lisbon had already announced in July that it intended to do so citing the extremely worrying evolution of the conflict as well as the humanitarian crisis and Israel’s repeated threats to annex Palestinian land.
Since then Israel has bombarded Gaza while a UN-backed hunger monitor has declared a famine in part of the territory.
The Israeli military has stated it will use unprecedented force to capture Gaza City.
France and Canada are among the other Western nations planning to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN gathering in the coming week.
Israel has vehemently opposed the moves and has reportedly threatened to annex the West Bank in response.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP on Friday that the world should not feel intimidated by the risk of retaliation from Israel.
Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel which sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people most of them civilians according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,208 people also mostly civilians according to figures from the Gazan health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable. – AFP