Distressing video shows the moment a 15-year-old boy was killed by a falling aid pallet in Gaza. Aid agencies warn airdrops cannot deliver food safely or quickly enough to address starvation in Gaza, which has now killed 100 Palestinian children.
Published On 10 Aug 202510 Aug 2025
Former Palestinian international player Suleiman Al-Obeid was killed by an Israeli attack on aid seekers in Gaza on Wednesday.
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has criticised the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)’s tribute to the late Suleiman Al-Obeid, known as the “Palestinian Pele,” after European football’s governing body failed to reference the circumstances surrounding his death this week.
The Palestine Football Association said that Al-Obeid, 41, was killed by an Israeli attack on civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
In a brief post on the social media platform X, UEFA called the former national team member “a talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times”.
Salah responded: “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?”
Can you tell us how he died, where, and why? https://t.co/W7HCyVVtBE
— Mohamed Salah (@MoSalah) August 9, 2025
UEFA was not immediately available to comment when contacted by the Reuters news agency.
One of the Premier League’s biggest stars, the 33-year-old Egyptian, Salah, has previously advocated for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza during the nearly two-year-long war.
The United Nations says that more than 1,000 people have been killed near aid distribution sites and aid convoys in Gaza since the launch of the GHF, a United States- and Israel-backed aid distribution system, in late May.
Varsen Aghabekian Shahin says international community must take concrete steps to end Israeli impunity for abuses.
The international community must “shoulder its responsibility” and take action against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the Palestinian foreign affairs minister has told Al Jazeera before an emergency United Nations Security Council session.
In an interview on Saturday, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin said the 15-member council must uphold international law when it convenes at UN headquarters in New York on Sunday to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip.
The meeting was organised in response to Israel’s newly announced plan to seize Gaza City, which has drawn widespread condemnation from world leaders.
“I expect that the international community stands for international law and international humanitarian law,” Aghabekian Shahin told Al Jazeera.
“What has been going in Palestine for the last 22 months is nothing but a genocide, and it’s part and parcel of Israel’s expansionist ideology that wants to take over the entirety of the occupied State of Palestine.”
The Israeli security cabinet approved plans this week to seize Gaza City, forcibly displacing nearly one million Palestinians to concentration zones in the south of the bombarded coastal enclave.
Palestinians have rejected the Israeli push to force them out of the city while human rights groups and the UN have warned that the plan will worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and lead to further mass casualties.
Israel has pledged to push ahead with its plans despite the growing criticism, saying that it wants to “free Gaza from Hamas”.
The country’s top global ally, the United States, has not commented directly on the plan to seize Gaza City. But US President Donald Trump suggested earlier this week that he would not block an Israeli push to take over all of Gaza.
Aghabekian Shahin told Al Jazeera that if Trump – whose administration continues to provide unwavering diplomatic and military support to Israel – wants to reach a solution, Palestinian rights must be taken into account.
“There will be no peace in Israel-Palestine, or the region for that matter, or even the world at large, if the rights of the Palestinians are not respected,” she said, noting that this means a Palestinian state must be established.
The minister also slammed recent remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the future governance of Gaza.
In a social media post on Friday, Netanyahu said he wants “a peaceful civilian administration” to be established in the enclave, “one that is not the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, and not any other terrorist organization”.
But Aghabekian Shahin said it’s up to Palestinians to decide who should govern them.
“The one that has the legal and the political authority on Gaza today is the PLO,” she said, referring to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“If Gaza wants to come back to the core, which is the entirety of the Palestinian land, then it has to become under the control and governance of the Palestinian Authority, the PLO.”
Aghabekian Shahin also condemned the international community for failing to act as Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have faced a surge in Israeli military and settler attacks in the shadow of the country’s war on Gaza.
“It is the inaction that has emboldened the Israelis, including the settlers, to do whatever they are doing for the last six decades, since day one of the 1967 occupation,” she said.
“The times are very dangerous now, and it’s important that the international community shoulders its responsibility. The impunity with which Israel was happily moving should stop.”
Palestinian football star Suleiman al-Obaid was killed in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday while waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza. Known as the “Pele of Palestinian football,” he is among 321 people in the football industry killed during Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Published On 7 Aug 20257 Aug 2025
More than 60 Palestinian women are staging a hunger strike to demand the release of the body of Palestinian activist and English teacher Awdah Hathaleen, who was shot dead last week in the village of Umm al-Kheir, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
Two women have received medical treatment as a result of the collective action, which started on Thursday.
The group is demanding the unconditional release of the body of the 31-year-old community leader who co-directed No Other Land, a documentary film that won an Oscar award this year. Israeli police set several conditions, including holding a quick and quiet burial at night outside the village, with no more than 15 people in attendance.
The protesters are also demanding the release of seven Umm al-Kheir residents arrested by Israeli forces who remain in administrative detention – a quasi-judicial process under which Palestinians are held without charge or trial.
Umm al-Kheir is part of Masafer Yatta, a string of Palestinian hamlets located on the hills south of Hebron, where residents have fought for decades to remain in their homes after Israel declared the area an Israeli military “firing” or training zone.
Iman Hathaleen, Awdah’s cousin, said women aged 13 to 70 were taking part in the hunger strike. “Now, as I’m talking, I am starving and I am breastfeeding,” she told Al Jazeera. “We will continue this until they release the body, so that we can honour him with the right Islamic tradition. We have to grieve him as our religion told us to.”
Awdah was taken by an ambulance to Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva on July 28, where he was pronounced dead after having been shot by an Israeli settler. The police transferred his body to the Abu Kabir National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Jaffa for an autopsy, which was completed on Wednesday. They then refused to return the body unless the family agreed to restrictive conditions on the funeral and burial.
Fathi Nimer, a researcher at the Al-Shabaka think tank, said Israel’s policy of withholding the body of a Palestinian was common practice. “This is not an isolated incident; there are hundreds of Palestinians whose bodies are used as bargaining chips so that their families stop any kind of activism or resistance or to break the spirit of resistance,” Nimer told Al Jazeera.
“Awdah was very loved in the village, so this is a tactic to break their spirit,” he added.
Meanwhile, Yinon Levi, the Israeli settler accused of firing the deadly shots, was released after spending a few days on house arrest. A video of the incident filmed by local activists shows Levi opening fire on Awdah, who died from a gunshot wound to his chest.
An Israeli settler just shot Odeh Hadalin in the lungs, a remarkable activist who helped us film No Other Land in Masafer Yatta. Residents identified Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, as the shooter. This is him in the video firing like crazy. pic.twitter.com/xH1Uo6L1wN
— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) July 28, 2025
Residents in Umm al-Kheir on Monday documented Levi’s return to the area. Pictures shared on social media groups depicted him overseeing bulldozing work alongside army officers at the nearby Carmel settlement.
Levi is among several Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank who were previously sanctioned under the former administration of United States President Joe Biden for perpetrating violence against Palestinians.
US President Donald Trump reversed those sanctions in an executive order shortly after taking office for a second term in January. The United Kingdom and the European Union, however, maintain sanctions against Levi.
Nimer said sanctions against individuals do little to stop settler violence and the expansion of Israel’s illegal outposts. “It’s not just individuals – there needs to be real international action to sanction Israel and to stop any of this kind of behaviour,” he said.
Iman, Awdah’s cousin, said Levi’s return makes her worried about her family’s safety. “Today, we are afraid that he’s back and can do this again, maybe he will shoot someone else,” she told Al Jazeera. Her father, Suleiman Hathaleen, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2022.
Oneg Ben Dror, a Jaffa-based activist and friend of the Hathaleen family, said the hunger strike was a desperate gesture for a community that has lost all hope of obtaining justice via legal means.
“The women feel that it’s their way to protest, it’s a last resort to bring back the body,” she said. “The community needs the possibility to mourn and… start the recovery from this horrible murder.”
She added that the presence of Levi and other settlers on the ground in Umm al-Kheir was a “continuous trauma and a nightmare for the community and for his wife”, who has been widowed while caring for three young children.
Dozens of left-wing Israeli and international activists on Sunday took part in a march in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to echo the demands voiced by the hunger strikers. Four activists were arrested during the demonstrations.
The United Nations office has reported 757 settler attacks on Palestinians since January, up 13 percent from 2024, as deaths since January near 1,000.
The Israeli army has also intensified raids across the occupied West Bank and the demolition of hundreds of homes. On Monday, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin. The Israeli municipality also issued a demolition order targeting the home of Palestinian residents in Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem.
Palestinian authorities say 198 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, while 538 were killed in 2024. At least 188 bodies are still being withheld by Israeli authorities.
A Palestinian teenager, shot in the eye by Israeli forces while desperately seeking food for his family near a United States and Israeli-backed GHF site in Gaza, is unlikely to regain sight in his left eye, doctors treating him have said, as the population of the besieged and bombarded enclave suffers from forced starvation.
Fifteen-year-old Abdul Rahman Abu Jazar told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers kept shooting at him even after he was struck by a bullet, making him think “this was the end” and “death was near”.
Relaying the harrowing chain of events from a hospital bed with a white bandage covering one eye, Abu Jazar said he went to the site around 2am (23:00 GMT).
“It was my first time going to the distribution point,” he said. “I went there because my siblings and I had no food. We couldn’t find anything to eat.”
He says he moved forward with the crowd until he reached al-Muntazah Park in the Gaza City environs about five hours later.
“We were running when they began shooting at us. I was with three others; three of them were hit. As soon as we started running, they opened fire. Then I felt something like electricity shoot through my body. I collapsed to the ground. I felt as though I had been electrocuted … I didn’t know where I was, I just blacked out. When I woke up, I asked people ‘Where am I?’”
Others near Abu Jazar told him he had been shot in the head. “They were still firing. I got scared and started reciting prayers.”
A doctor at the hospital held a phone light near the boy’s wounded eye and asked him if he could see any light. He could not. The doctor diagnosed a perforating eye injury caused by a gunshot wound.
Abu Jazar underwent surgery and said, “I hope my eyesight will return, God willing.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported on Sunday that 119 bodies, including 15 recovered from under the rubble of destroyed buildings or other places, and 866 wounded Palestinians have arrived at the enclave’s hospitals over the past 24-hour reporting period.
At least 65 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid, and 511 more were wounded.
Israeli forces have routinely fired on Palestinians trying to get food at GHF-run distribution sites in Gaza, and the United Nations reported this week that more than 1,300 aid seekers have been killed since the group began operating in May.
Gaza’s famine and malnutrition crisis has been worsening by the day, with at least 175 people, including 93 children, now confirmed dead from the man-made starvation of Israel’s punishing blockade, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
More than 6,000 Palestinian children are being treated for malnutrition resulting from the blockade, according to the Global Nutrition Cluster, which includes the UN health and food agencies.
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, says, “There’s a very, very small amount of trucks coming into Gaza – about maybe 80 to 100 trucks every single day – despite the fact that this “humanitarian pause” was for more aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
“Palestinians are struggling to get a bag of wheat flour. They’re struggling to find a food parcel. And this shows the fact that this pause and all the Israeli claims are not true because on the ground, Palestinians are starving, ” she added.
Khoudary noted that the entire population had been relyiant on UN agencies and other partners to distribute food.
“More Palestinians die every single day due to the forced starvation and malnutrition … Since the blockade started, those distribution points have not been operating, and now nothing’s back to normal. Palestinians are still struggling, and not only that, they’re being killed now for the fact that they’re approaching trucks, the GHF, because they want to eat,” she said.
Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral for 40-year-old Khamis Ayyad, who died from smoke inhalation after an Israeli settler arson attack in the occupied West Bank. His death follows a surge in settler violence this year.
Published On 1 Aug 20251 Aug 2025
US accuses Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority of undermining prospects for peace.
The Trump administration has sanctioned members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA), accusing them of undermining peace efforts.
The move comes as more Western governments are openly criticising Israel, calling on the country to end the war on Gaza and move towards a two-state solution.
More countries have also announced their intention to recognise Palestinian statehood under certain conditions, including the disarmament of Hamas and PA reform.
So what’s behind the US sanctions?
Are they a bargaining chip to further peace talks, or a sign of more hurdles ahead?
Presenter: Adrian Finighan
Guests:
Xavier Abu Eid – Former adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization
Eli Clifton – Senior adviser at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
Firas El Echi – Journalist and host of the Here’s Why podcast
Palestinian mothers in the Gaza Strip are desperately trying to feed their newborns as Israel’s punishing blockade on the besieged enclave has led to dire shortages of infant formula, with some resorting to filling bottles with water and whatever food they can find.
Dr Kahlil Daqran told Al Jazeera on Thursday that as supplies of formula run out, many mothers are often too malnourished to breastfeed their infants.
“In the Gaza Strip, we have thousands of children being starved because there is no milk for children under the age of two,” Daqran said.
“These children, their mothers also have malnutrition because there is no food, so the mothers cannot produce milk. Now, our children are being fed either water or ground hard legumes, and this is harmful for children in Gaza.”
Azhar Imad, 31, said she has mixed tahini with water in hopes of feeding four-month-old Joury. But she said she fears the mixture will make her baby sick.
“I am using this paste instead of milk, but she won’t drink it. All these can cause illnesses,” Imad said. “Sometimes, I give her water in the bottle; there’s nothing available. I make her caraway and herbs, any kind of herbs.”
Israel’s blockade on Gaza, which has been under Israeli military bombardment since October 2023, has led to critical shortages of food, water, medicine and other humanitarian supplies.
Local hospitals said on Thursday that at least two more deaths from Israel’s forced starvation were reported in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of hunger-related fatalities since Israel’s war began to 159, including 90 children.
The United Nations has warned that Palestinian children are especially vulnerable as hunger grips the coastal territory, and UN officials have repeatedly called on Israel to allow an uninterrupted flow of aid supplies.
Israel has blamed the UN for the starvation crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip, saying the global body had failed to pick up supplies.
UN officials, and several nations, have rejected that claim as false and stressed that Israel has refused to offer safe routes for humanitarian agencies to transport aid into Gaza.
Airdrops of humanitarian supplies, carried out in recent days, have also done little to address the widespread hunger crisis. Experts denounced the effort as dangerous, costly and ineffective.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, told reporters on Thursday that the UN and its partners “continue to seize every opportunity to collect supplies from the Israeli-controlled crossings and replenish those platforms with new supplies”.
“Our colleagues say that, despite Israeli announcements regarding the designation of convoy routes as secure, trucks continue to face long delays that expose drivers, aid workers, and crowds to danger,” Haq said.
“The long waits are because a single route has been made available for our teams exiting Kerem Shalom [Karem Abu Salem crossing] inside Gaza, and Israeli ground forces have set up an ad hoc checkpoint on that route.”
As starvation continues to grip Gaza, more Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while seeking aid at distribution sites operated by the controversial Israeli- and United States-backed GHF.
A source at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital told Al Jazeera that at least 23 people were killed after Israeli forces opened fire at them on Thursday morning as they waited for aid near Netzarim junction in central Gaza.
The deadly incident came just hours before the White House announced that US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee are expected to enter Gaza on Friday to inspect the aid distribution sites.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the US officials also would meet with Palestinians to “hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground”.
Reporting from the Jordan capital, Amman, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh explained that the trip comes amid growing concern in Washington that US contractors may be found liable for the deaths of more than 1,000 Palestinians killed while trying to reach GHF sites since May.
“There is a lot of pressure and insistence in Israel that those sites must continue to operate even if Israel allows more aid into Gaza,” Odeh said.
“This organisation was set up to bypass the United Nations, and Israel is not ready to let it go despite the resistance from the international community to engage with it in any way because it is accused of violating humanitarian principles.”
Hamas said in a statement released via its Telegram channel late on Thursday that it is ready to “immediately” engage in negotiations to end the war in Gaza “once aid reaches those who deserve it and the humanitarian crisis and famine in Gaza are ended”.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, countless families continue to face a desperate search for food.
Nehma Hamouda said she has struggled to keep her three-month-old granddaughter, Muntaha, alive amid the shortage of infant formula.
Muntaha’s mother was shot by Israeli soldiers when she was pregnant. She gave birth to her daughter prematurely but died weeks later.
“I resort to tea for the girl,” said Hamouda, explaining that her granddaughter cannot process solid foods yet.
“She’s not eating, and there’s no sugar. Where can I get her sugar? I give her a bit [of anise], and she drinks a bit,” she said. “At times, when we get lentil soup from the soup kitchen, I strain the water, and I try to feed her. What can I do?”
Khamis Ayyad, 40, died of smoke inhalation after settlers set fire to vehicles in town of Silwad, Health Ministry says.
A Palestinian man has been killed after Israeli settlers set fire to vehicles and homes in a town in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says.
The ministry said on Thursday that Khamis Ayyad, 40, died due to smoke inhalation after settlers attacked Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, around dawn. Ayyad and others had been trying to extinguish the fires, local residents said.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the settlers also attacked the nearby villages of Khirbet Abu Falah and Rammun, setting fire to more vehicles.
A relative of Ayyad’s, and a resident of Silwad, said they woke up at 2am (23:00 GMT) to see “flames devouring vehicles across the neighbourhood”.
“The townspeople panicked and rushed to extinguish the fires engulfing the cars and buildings,” they said, explaining that Ayyad had been trying to put out a fire burning his brother’s car.
Ayyad’s death comes amid burgeoning Israeli settler and military violence across the West Bank in tandem with Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
Settlers have been attacking Palestinians and their property with impunity, backed by the Israeli army.
Earlier this week, Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian from Masafer Yatta, the community whose resistance to Israeli settler violence was documented in the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, with which he helped, was killed by an Israeli settler.
The suspect, identified as Yinon Levi, was placed under house arrest on Tuesday after a Magistrate Court in Jerusalem declined to keep him in custody.
According to the latest data from the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA), at least 159 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank between January 1 and July 21 of this year.
Hundreds of Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians have also been reported so far in 2025, including at least 27 incidents that resulted in casualties, property damage, or both, between July 15 and 21, OCHA said.
Observers have warned that the uptick in Israeli violence aims to forcibly displace Palestinians and pave the way for Israel to formally annex the territory, as tens of thousands have been forced out of their homes in recent months across the West Bank.
Earlier this month, the Israeli parliament – the Knesset – overwhelmingly voted in favour of a symbolic motion calling for Israel to annex the West Bank.
On Thursday, Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement that “there is a moment of opportunity that must not be missed” to exert Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, according to a Times of Israel report.
“Ministers Katz and Levin have been working for many years to implement Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” the statement said, using a term used by Israeli settlers and their supporters to refer to the occupied Palestinian territory.
Back in Silwad, Raafat Hussein Hamed, a resident whose house was torched in Thursday’s attack, said that the settlers “burned whatever they could and then ran away”.
Hamed told the AFP news agency that the attackers “come from an outpost”, referring to an Israeli settlement that, in addition to violating international law, is also illegal under Israeli law.
The Israeli military told AFP that “several suspects … set fire to property and vehicles in the Silwad area”, but forces dispatched to the scene were unable to identify them. It added that Israeli police had launched an investigation.
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Canada’s announcement that it will recognize a Palestinian state “will make it very hard” for the U.S. to reach a trade agreement with its northern neighbor.
Trump’s threat, posted in the early hours Thursday on his social media network, is the latest way he has sought to use his trade war to coerce countries on unrelated issues and is a swing from the ambivalence he has expressed about other countries making such a move.
The Republican president said this week that he didn’t mind British Prime Minister Keir Starmer taking a position on the issue of formally recognizing Palestinian statehood. And last week he said that French President Emmanuel Macron’s similar move was “not going to change anything.”
But Trump, who has heckled Canada for months and suggested it should become the 51st U.S. state, indicated on Thursday that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s similar recognition would become leverage ahead of a deadline he set in trade talks.
“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine,” Trump said in his Truth Social post. “That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!”
Trump has threatened to impose a 35% tariff on Canada if no deal is reached by Friday, when he’s said he will levy tariffs against goods from dozens of countries if they don’t reach agreements with the United States.
Some imports from Canada are still protected by the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is up for renegotiation next year.
Carney’s announcement Wednesday that Canada would recognize a Palestinian state in September comes amid a broader global shift against Israel’s policies in Gaza.
Though Trump this week said he was “not going to take a position” on recognizing a Palestinian state, he later said that such a move would be rewarding Hamas, whose surprise Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel prompted a declaration of war and a massive military retaliation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump’s new cudgel against Canada comes after he moved to impose steep tariffs on Brazil because it indicted its former president Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally who, like the U.S. president, has faced criminal charges for attempting to overturn the results of his election loss.
Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to impose his threatened 50% tariffs on Brazil, setting a legal rationale that Brazil’s policies and criminal prosecution of Bolsonaro constitute an economic emergency under a 1977 law.
Trump had threatened the tariffs July 9 in a letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The legal basis of that threat was an earlier executive order premised on trade imbalances being a threat to the U.S. economy. But the U.S. ran a $6.8-billion trade surplus last year with Brazil, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
A statement by the White House said Brazil’s judiciary had tried to coerce social media companies and block their users, though it did not name the companies involved, X and Rumble.
Trump appears to identify with Bolsonaro, who attempted to overturn the results of his 2022 loss to Lula. Similarly, Trump was indicted in 2023 for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The order would apply an additional 40% tariff on the baseline 10% tariff already being levied by Trump. But not all goods imported from Brazil would face the 40% tariff: Civil aircraft and parts, aluminum, tin, wood pulp, energy products and fertilizers are among the products being excluded.
The order said the tariffs would go into effect seven days after its signing on Wednesday.
Also Wednesday, Trump’s Treasury Department announced sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over Bolsonaro’s ongoing trial and alleged suppression of freedom of expression.
Citing a personal grievance in trade talks with Brazil and now Canada’s symbolic announcement on a Palestinian state adds to the jumble of reasons Trump has pointed to for his trade war, such as stopping human trafficking, stopping the flow of fentanyl, balancing the budget and protecting U.S. manufacturing.
Price writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.
Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said warnings that the recognition of a Palestinian state could breach international law are “missing the point”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced the UK would move towards recognition unless Israel met certain conditions, including agreeing a ceasefire and reviving the prospect of a two-state solution, earlier this week.
However, some of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers have warned that Palestine does not meet the legal requirements for statehood under a 1933 treaty.
Nearly 150 more than 140 of the UN’s 193 members already formally recognise a Palestinian state, with Canada, Germany and Portugal considering recognition.
Under the Montevideo Convention, signed in 1933, the criteria for the recognition of a state under international law are set out as a defined territory, a permanent population, an effective government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.
In a letter to the government’s attorney general, Lord Hermer, first reported by the Times, 43 cross-party peers call for him to advise the prime minister against recognition.
The group includes some of the country’s top lawyers, such as former Supreme Court judge Lord Collins of Mapesbury and Lord Pannick KC.
“It is clear that there is no certainty over the borders of Palestine,” they argue, and also that “there is no functioning single government, Fatah and Hamas being enemies”.
“The former has failed to hold elections for decades, and the latter is a terrorist organisation, neither of which could enter into relations with other states,” the letter adds.
The UK did not sign the 1933 convention but the lawyers argue that it has “become part of customary law and it would be unwise to depart from it at a time when international law is seen as fragile or, indeed, at any time”.
They add: “You have said that a selective, ‘pick and mix’ approach to international law will lead to its disintegration, and that the criteria set out in international law should not be manipulated for reasons of political expedience.
“Accordingly, we expect you to demonstrate this commitment by explaining to the public and to the government that recognition of Palestine would be contrary to the principles governing recognition of states in international law.”
Lord Hermer has previously insisted that a commitment to international law “goes absolutely to the heart” of the government’s approach to foreign policy.
Jonathan Reynolds defended the plans on BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme and suggested the peers needed to “look at the levers the UK has” to deliver peace.
Asked about the signatories’ concern recognition does not align with the 1933 Montevideo Convention, Reynolds said: “I think to be honest, with respect to those colleagues, that is missing the point somewhat.”
He explained the objective was “not just a ceasefire for the conflict in Gaza but a genuine peace process, and that requires a two-state solution”.
Asked about why conditions had not been placed on Hamas, he said: “Hamas is a terrorist organisation and we don’t put conditions on those, we don’t negotiate with terrorists.
“We’ve been absolutely clear: it’s our longstanding position that the hostages have to be released. It’s also our longstanding position that Hamas can play no role in the future governance of Gaza or any Palestinian state.
“So those are our absolute condition, but we will never be willing to negotiate with Hamas because they are a terrorist organisation.”
The peers’ intervention follows condemnation of Sir Keir’s announcement by Emily Damari, a British-Israeli women who was held captive by Hamas for more than a year, who said Sir Keir is “not standing on the right side of history”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also claimed it “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism”.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his country plans to recognise a Palestinian state as part of the two-state solution – that is Israel and Palestine living side-by-side.
Carney said his decision was prompted by the “catastrophe” in Gaza, and because he feared the prospect of a Palestinian state was “receding before our eyes”.
The Palestinian Authority – which runs parts of the occupied West Bank – must commit to “much-needed reform” he said, and Hamas, which controlled Gaza, “can play no part”.
The UK has said it too would recognise a Palestinian state at a UN summit in September unless Israel committed to a ceasefire.
Sir Keir has said the UK will only refrain from recognition if Israel allows more aid into Gaza, stops annexing land in the West Bank, agrees to a ceasefire, and signs up to a long-term peace process over the next two months.
He also said Hamas must immediately release all remaining Israeli hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, disarm and “accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza”.
The question of international law has been repeatedly raised with the prime minister by more than 800 other lawyers, who allege Israel has flouted the Geneva Convention by committing war crimes including genocide in Gaza.
Canada has become the latest country to announce its intention to recognise a Palestinian state if certain conditions are met. Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the Israeli government for allowing a catastrophe to unfold in Gaza.
Published On 31 Jul 202531 Jul 2025
Washington, DC – A spokesperson for the State Department in the United States has been questioned about the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, allegedly at the hands of an Israeli settler previously sanctioned by the US government.
At a news briefing on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce demurred when asked whether the suspect in Hathaleen’s death, Yinon Levi, would be held accountable.
“Israel has investigations that it’s implementing regarding situations of this sort,” Bruce said. “I don’t know the end result of what that’s going to be, nor will I comment or speculate on what should happen.”
Bruce’s tense exchange with reporters came one day after video circulated showing Levi opening fire on Hathaleen in the village of Umm al-Kheir in the occupied West Bank.
The 31-year-old Palestinian activist later died from a gunshot wound to his chest.
Levi is among several Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank who were previously sanctioned under the former administration of US President Joe Biden for perpetrating violence against Palestinians.
But President Donald Trump reversed those sanctions in an executive order shortly after taking office for a second term in January. The United Kingdom and the European Union, however, maintain sanctions against Levi.
Hathaleen, a resident of Masafer Yatta, had helped create the Academy Award-winning documentary No Other Land, which captured the effects of Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law, and attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
In Tuesday’s news briefing, Bruce appeared to suggest that Hathaleen’s shooting happened in the “war zone” of Gaza, before being corrected.
Still, she maintained that the Trump administration sought to address violence wherever it occurred.
“It’s the same argument. We see this in the West Bank. We know when there’s violence in general. We saw something unfold in New York City as well, with a shooting in New York City yesterday,” she said, in an apparent reference to an unrelated shooting in a Manhattan skyscraper.
The State Department did not respond to a subsequent request from Al Jazeera about whether the Trump administration would revisit its sanctions policy in light of the killing.
On Tuesday, Israeli media reported that Levi had been placed on house arrest after being charged with manslaughter and unlawful firearm use.
Hathaleen was a father of three who coordinated with several influential advocacy and lobbying groups in the US, and his death has renewed scrutiny of Trump’s policies towards illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territories like the West Bank.
During his first term, Trump reversed a longstanding policy recognising such settlements as illegal. Such settlements are in violation of international law and widely seen as a means of displacing Palestinians and seizing their lands.
But Israeli settlements have continued to spread rapidly in recent years and are seen as a major roadblock to future peace agreements with Palestinian leaders.
Upon taking office earlier this year, Trump revoked many Biden-era executive orders, including the sanctions against Israeli settlers. The move reportedly came amid pressure from the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
During his term, Biden had been criticised for continuing to funnel aid to Israel amid its war in Gaza, but his administration showed a willingness to take a harder line when it came to settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“The situation in the West Bank — in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction — has reached intolerable levels,” Biden’s executive order, dated February 2024, said.
It added that Israeli actions in the West Bank constitute “a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region”.
Violence on the part of Israeli settlers and military forces has surged since Israel’s war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, with at least 1,000 Palestinians killed in the West Bank.
Rights observers say violent settlers are often protected by the military as they attack Palestinians.
Those killed have included US citizens, most recently Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old resident of Florida, beaten to death while visiting his family’s land in the village of Sinjil.
In a rare statement condemning Musallet’s killing, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a vocal supporter of Israeli settlements, called on the country to “aggressively investigate” what he called a “criminal and terrorist act”.
To date, no one has been arrested or charged in the killing.
In a statement following Monday’s attack, J Street, a left-leaning pro-Israel lobbying group, called on US lawmakers to support legislation that would codify the Biden-era sanctions against settlers like Levi.
The group explained that its members had “deep, personal ties” to Hathaleen, and said they were “heartbroken and horrified” by his killing.
In a post on the social media platform X on Tuesday, Congress member Delia Ramirez called Hathaleen’s killing “a painful reminder that our government and Israel continue to enable and condone violence in the West Bank”.
“We must reinstate the sanctions on West Bank settlers perpetrating violence and hold accountable all those whose extreme and escalating violence continues to rob us of our neighbors — including Trump and Netanyahu,” she wrote.
Political reporter
The UK will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes “substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza”, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The PM said Israel must also meet other conditions, including agreeing to a ceasefire, committing to a long-term sustainable peace that delivers a two-state solution, and allowing the United Nations to restart the supply of aid, or the UK would take the step at September’s UN General Assembly.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism”.
The UK government has previously said recognition should come at a point when it can have maximum impact, as part of a peace process.
However, the PM has been under growing pressure – including from his own MPs – to act more quickly.
Last week France also announced it would officially recognise a Palestinian state in September – the first of the G7 group of the world’s richest countries to do so.
Giving a news conference after holding an emergency cabinet meeting, Sir Keir said he was announcing the plan now because of the “intolerable situation” in Gaza and concern that “the very possibility of a two-state solution is reducing”.
He told reporters that the UK’s goal of “a safe secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state” was “under pressure like never before”.
The PM added that his “primary aim” was to improve the situation on the ground in Gaza, including ensuring that aid gets in.
Sir Keir said the UK would recognise a Palestinian state unless the Israeli government takes steps including:
Meanwhile, he said Hamas must immediately release all hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, disarm and accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza.
In response to the announcement Netanyahu wrote on social media: “A jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW.
“Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”
Asked if he knew the PM’s statement was coming, Donald Trump said the pair “never discussed it” during their meeting on Monday, when the US president was in Scotland.
He told reporters: “You could make the case… that you are rewarding Hamas if you do that. And I don’t think they should be rewarded.”
The US – along with many European nations – has said it would only recognise a Palestinian state as part of moves towards a long-term resolution to the conflict.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey welcomed the government’s announcement as “a crucial step” but urged the PM to recognise a Palestinian state immediately, and pursue “far greater action to stop the humanitarian disaster in Gaza”.
He added: “Rather than use recognition, which should have taken place many months ago, as a bargaining chip, the prime minister should be applying pressure on Israel by fully ceasing arms sales, and implementing sanctions against the Israeli cabinet.”
Some 255 MPs have signed a letter calling for the government to immediately recognise a Palestinian state – including more than half of Labour MPs.
Labour MP Sarah Champion, who coordinated the letter, said she was “delighted and relieved” at the announcement.
“This will put political pressure on Israel and make clear what’s happening in Gaza and the West Bank is totally unacceptable,” she said.
“However, I’m troubled our recognition appears conditional on Israel’s actions.
“Israel is the occupier, and recognition is about the self-determination of the Palestinian people. The two should be separate.”
The Conservatives and Reform UK have said now is not the right time to take the step, arguing this would reward Hamas for their attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said recognising a Palestinian state “won’t bring the hostages home, won’t end the war and won’t get aid into Gaza”.
“This is political posturing at its very worst,” she added.
The announcement comes after a call between Sir Keir and the leaders of France and Germany over the weekend, when Downing Street said plans for a sustainable route to a two-state solution were discussed.
However, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his government had no plans to recognise a Palestinian state in the near future, suggesting this may be “one of the last steps on a path to realising a two-state solution”.
Most countries – about 139 in all – formally recognise a Palestinian state.
Spain, Ireland and Norway took the step last year, hoping to exert diplomatic pressure to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
Palestinian representatives currently have limited rights to participate in UN activity, and the territory is also recognised by various international organisations, including the Arab League.
Sceptics argue recognition is largely be a symbolic gesture unless questions over the leadership and extent of a Palestinian state are addressed first.
As Sir Keir made his announcement, Foreign Secretary David Lammy addressed a UN conference in New York, aimed at advancing a two-state solution to the conflict.
Lammy told reporters the UK had worked with Jordan to air-drop 20 tonnes of aid to Gaza in recent days, as he also called for aid trucks to be allowed to enter by land.
UN agencies have described the situation in Gaza as “man-made mass starvation”, blaming the humanitarian crisis on Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies to the territory.
Israel has insisted there are no restrictions on aid deliveries and that there is “no starvation”.
July 29 (UPI) — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday said the United Kingdom will recognize a Palestinian state if Israel does not agree to a cease-fire in Gaza by September.
Starmer said the Israeli government must take “substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza” by agreeing to a cease-fire and committing to a lasting peace, the BBC reported.
The United Kingdom will announce its recognition of a Palestinian state before the U.N. General Assembly, which is scheduled to start on Sept. 9, Starmer said in his ultimatum.
“Ultimately, the only way to bring this humanitarian crisis to an end is through a long-term settlement,” Starmer told media.
“Our goal remains a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state,” he added, “but, right now, that goal is under pressure like never before.”
Starmer told reporters he always has supported recognizing a Palestinian state as a way to contribute to a lasting peace.
“We demand an immediate cease-fire to stop the slaughter, that the U.N. be allowed to send humanitarian assistance into Gaza on a continuing basis to prevent starvation and the immediate release of the hostages,” Starmer said in a prepared statement on Tuesday.
Starmer did not say where the Palestinian state would be located or what incentive Hamas would have to agree to a cease-fire if continued hostilities would cause the United Kingdom to recognize such a state.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday announced that France will announce its recognition of a Palestinian state during September’s U.N. conference.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected Starmer’s statement, which it said endangers a viable cease-fire in Gaza.
“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 cease-fire in Gaza and a framework for the release of hostages,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health ministry has reported more than 60,000 deaths of Gazans following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israeli civilians that killed about 1,200 and kidnapped about 250 others.
Hamas continues holding 50 hostages, including 28 that Israel and others say likely are dead.
U.N. reports indicate Gaza is undergoing a “worst-case scenario of famine” after Israel temporarily halted aid shipments to Gaza from March to mid-May.
Starmer did not respond to a UPI request for comment on the matter.
Masafer Yatta, occupied West Bank – Awdah Hathaleen was standing by a fence in the Umm al-Kheir community centre when he was shot in the chest by an Israeli settler on Monday.
The beloved 31-year-old activist and father of three fell to the ground as people rushed over to try to help him. Then an ambulance came out of the nearby illegal settlement of Carmel and took him away.
Israeli authorities have refused to release his body for burial, simply telling his family on Monday night that he had died, depriving them of the closure of laying him to rest immediately, as Islam dictates.
Under the scorching sun of the South Hebron Hills, the people of Umm al-Kheir were joined by anti-occupation activists from all over the world – gathered in silence to mourn Awdah, who was a key figure in non-violent resistance against settler violence in Masafer Yatta.
They came together in the same yard where Awdah was standing when he was shot to death by Israeli settler Yinon Levi, who later said, “I’m glad I did it,” according to witnesses.
Rocks had been laid in a circle around Awdah’s blood on the ground, mourners stopping there as if paying their respects.
Around the circle, the elders sat in silence, waiting for news that didn’t arrive on whether Awdah’s body would be returned by the Israeli army.
There is a feeling of shock that Awdah, out of all people, was the one murdered in cold blood, his cousin Eid Hathaleen, 41, told Al Jazeera about his “truly beloved” relative.
“There was [nobody] who contributed as much to the community in Umm al-Kheir as Awdah,” Alaa Hathaleen, 26, Awdah’s cousin and brother-in-law, said.
“I can’t believe that tomorrow I will wake up and Awdah won’t be here.”
Awdah had three children – five-year-old Watan, four-year-old Muhammad, and seven-month-old Kinan – and he loved them above everything else in the world, several of his friends and relatives told Al Jazeera.
“He was a great father,” Alaa said. “The children would go to him more than to their mother.”
Awdah got married in 2019, Jewish Italian activist Micol Hassan told Al Jazeera over the phone. “His wedding was a beautiful occasion in 2019. We organised cars that came from all over Palestine [for it].
“He loved his children so much,” she continued. “Every time he put them to sleep, they cried and asked where their daddy was.”
Hassan, who has been barred from returning to the occupied West Bank by Israeli authorities, also fondly recalled how much Awdah loved coffee and how she would bring him packs of Italian coffee whenever she was able to get to Umm al-Kheir.
Awdah also loved football, playing it every chance he got, even though Umm al-Kheir’s facilities are badly degraded and all the villagers have is a paved yard with dilapidated goalposts.
In fact, Awdah’s last breaths were on that same battered football pitch, possibly the one place in the village where he spent the most time.
No matter how bad settler attacks were, Alaa said, Awdah would sit down with him and discuss their projections and hopes for his favourite team, Spanish side Real Madrid.
“His love for Real Madrid ran in his veins,” Alaa added. “Maybe if they knew how much he loved them, Real Madrid would speak about Masafer Yatta.”
Awdah has been an activist since he was 17 years old, working to stop the Israeli attempts to expel the villagers of Masafer Yatta from their homes and lands.
He hosted countless visiting activists who came to the occupied West Bank to support Palestinian activists and villagers, helping them understand the situation on the ground and embracing their presence with his trademark hospitality.
Perhaps his most famous such collaboration was his work with Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, who co-directed No Other Land, a documentary film that won an Oscar award this year.
Everyone who spoke to Al Jazeera remembers him as the kindest person, with a brave, peaceful heart.
He was “tayyeb, salim”, they said, using the Arabic words for “kind” and “peaceful”.
Awdah would tell anyone who came to Umm al-Kheir that he didn’t choose to be an activist; it just happened, Hassan told Al Jazeera, adding that he welcomed everyone, regardless of faith or citizenship.
“He was a radical humanist,” she said.
“He wanted the occupation to end without suffering,” said Alaa, adding that Awdah always thought about what the future would bring for his children and others.
He chose to become an English teacher because of that, Eid told Al Jazeera. He wanted the village children to grow up educated and able to tell the world their story in English, so they could reach more people.
“He taught all his students to love and welcome everyone regardless of their faith and origin,” said Eid.
A group of his students – he taught English from grades one through nine in the local school – huddled together in the community centre yard among the mourners, remembering their teacher.
“He would always try to make classes fun,” said Mosab, nine years old.
“He made us laugh,” added his classmate Mohammed, 11.
Umm al-Kheir is one of more than 30 villages and hamlets in the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta, a region that, more than any, has seen the consequences of the expansion of settlements and violence linked to it.
The incident that led up to Awdah’s killing began the day before, recounted activist Mattan Berner-Kadish, who had been in Umm al-Kheir providing protective presence to the Palestinian community.
A digger was to be delivered to the illegal settlement, and the villagers had agreed to coordinate the passage of the machinery with the settlers, to prevent any damage to village infrastructure.
But the settler driving the machinery ran over a water pipe and began rolling over other infrastructure, threatening to roll into the town and cause more damage.
When villagers gathered to try to stop the machinery, the operator used the digger’s claw to hit one of them in the head, dropping him to the ground, semi-conscious.
Awdah was 10-15 metres (30-50 feet) away from the altercation, standing in the community centre yard, looking on.
In the chaos, gunshots started ringing out, and Berner-Kadish saw Yinon Levi shooting at people. Amid the screams and panic, he realised that Awdah had been shot.
An Israeli settler just shot Odeh Hadalin in the lungs, a remarkable activist who helped us film No Other Land in Masafer Yatta. Residents identified Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, as the shooter. This is him in the video firing like crazy. pic.twitter.com/xH1Uo6L1wN
— Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) July 28, 2025
He tried to calm Levi down, telling him that he had directly shot someone and likely killed him. To which Levi responded: “I’m glad I did it.”
Berner-Kadish also tried to talk to the Israeli soldiers who arrived on the scene, only to hear from three of them that they wished they had been the ones to shoot Awdah.
Following the murder, the Israeli army arrested five men from the Hathaleen family. On Tuesday, the Israeli army closed the area around Umm al-Kheir, restricting any access to it.
Also on Tuesday, Levi was released to house arrest by Israeli courts, which charged him with negligent homicide.
Levi was sanctioned by Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States for violent attacks on Palestinians.
The five Hathaleen men arrested after Awdah was killed are still in Israeli custody, Alaa told Al Jazeera.
Weeping, he fretted: “What if [the Israelis] return [Awdah’s] body and they can’t pay their last tribute to them?”
‘All the kids are hungry. We are hungry.’
This is a day in the life of a Palestinian family in Gaza, living through Israel’s policy of starvation. Video shows the challenges they face as they try to find a meal from a charity kitchen during a widespread famine.
Published On 29 Jul 202529 Jul 2025
More than 200 lawmakers in the United Kingdom have called on the British government to recognise a Palestinian state, as pressure mounts on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take concrete action amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
Some 221 MPs from across the political spectrum signed an open letter on Friday calling on Starmer’s Labour government to recognise a Palestinian state in advance of a United Nations conference on Palestine next week.
“We are expectant that the outcome of the conference will be the UK Government outlining when and how it will act on its long-standing commitment on a two-state solution; as well as how it will work with international partners to make this a reality,” the letter reads.
“Whilst we appreciate the UK does not have it in its power to bring about a free and independent Palestine, UK recognition would have a significant impact due to our historic connections and our membership on the UN Security Council, so we urge you to take this step.”
Parliamentarians from nine political parties were among the signatories, Labour MP Sarah Champion said, including Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP, and the Greens.
The letter comes as public anger is growing in the UK and around the world over Israel’s continued bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has spurred a deadly starvation crisis.
221 MPs, from 9 parties, have sent a joint letter to the Prime Minister & Foreign Secretary urging them to recognise Palestine as a state now pic.twitter.com/b2hbX2XCGR
— Sarah Champion (@SarahChampionMP) July 25, 2025
It also comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would recognise the State of Palestine at the UN in September.
“Consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine,” Macron said in a social media post on Thursday.
“I will make this solemn announcement before the United Nations General Assembly this coming September. The urgent priority today is to end the war in Gaza and to bring relief to the civilian population.”
Macron’s announcement drew the ire of Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the move “rewards terror”.
But Netanyahu has faced widespread condemnation for Israel’s continuing assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians since it began in October 2023.
Israel’s blockade of the enclave has caused a deepening humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations and top human rights groups reporting that many Palestinian children are now suffering from severe malnutrition and at risk of death.
In a statement on Friday, Starmer said “the appalling scenes in Gaza are unrelenting”.
“The continued captivity of hostages, the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible,” he said.
But Starmer stopped short of announcing plans to recognise a Palestinian state, instead saying he was working “on a pathway to peace in the region”.
“That pathway will set out the concrete steps needed to turn the ceasefire so desperately needed, into a lasting peace,” he said.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that. But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.”
Reporting from a protest outside Starmer’s residence in London on Friday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic said demonstrators expressed “outrage” at the British government’s stance amid the dire situation in Gaza.
“Many of them feel powerless, so one of the only things they can do is gather here, make as much noise as they can, and hope that it will be noticed by the people in power,” she said.
“They want Keir Starmer to do more with the power that he has, and with the influence that he has, to put an end to this.”
In addition to recognising a Palestinian state, the British government has faced growing calls to sanction Israel and impose an arms embargo against the country.
Veselinovic said Starmer is in “a difficult diplomatic situation” as he prepares to meet United States President Donald Trump, who was travelling to Scotland on Friday.
She explained that Macron’s announcement added pressure on the UK, which is a close ally of both France and the US, to also recognise a Palestinian state, but noted that Trump has criticised the French president’s move.
“It does seem like a gulf is emerging here over what the European stance is overall, which is much more aligned with what UN aid agencies are saying is going on on the ground in Gaza, and the American position, which seems to nearly 100 percent back whatever is the Israeli government’s version of events is,” she said.
“And in the middle of that is Keir Starmer, who wants to maintain good relations with both sides.”
France will officially recognise a Palestinian state in September, President Emmanuel Macron has said.
In a post on X, Macron said the formal announcement would be made at a session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“The urgent need today is for the war in Gaza to end and for the civilian population to be rescued. Peace is possible. We need an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” he wrote.
Palestinian officials welcomed Macron’s decision, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move “rewards terror” following Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack in Israel.
In his Thursday post on X, Macron wrote: “True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine.
“We must also guarantee the demilitarisation of Hamas, and secure and rebuild Gaza.
“Finally, we must build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and ensure that by accepting its demilitarisation and fully recognising Israel, it contributes to the security of all in the Middle East. There is no alternative.”
Macron also attached a letter to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas confirming his decision.
Responding to Macron’s announcement, Abbas’ deputy Hussein al-Sheikh said “this position reflects France’s commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state”, according to the AFP news agency.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu wrote in a post on X: “We strongly condemn President Macron’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the 7 October massacre.
“A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel – not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel,” Netanyahu added.
Hamas said France’s decision was a “positive step in the right direction” and urged all countries of the world “to follow France’s lead”.
Currently, the State of Palestine is recognised by more than 140 of the 193 member states of the UN.
A few European Union countries, including Spain and Ireland, are among them.
But Israel’s main supporter, the US, and its allies including the UK have not recognised a Palestinian state.
In a statement on Thursday, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he will hold an “emergency call” with French and German leaders on Friday to discuss “what we can do urgently to stop the killing”.
Statehood is an “inalienable right of the Palestinian people”, Starmer said, adding that a ceasefire would “put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution”.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry praised France’s decision, saying it “reaffirms the international community’s consensus on the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state”.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 59,106 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble since then.
Earlier on Thursday, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) said that one in five children in Gaza City was now malnourished and cases were increasing every day.
More than 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups have also warned of mass starvation in the Gaza Strip – pressing for governments to take action.
Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies into the Palestinian territory, has repeatedly said that there is no siege, blaming Hamas for any cases of malnutrition.