The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, said on Tuesday that his nation will recognize the state of Palestine at a United Nations meeting in September if Israel does not accept a high fire in Gaza.
“Today, as part of this process towards peace, I can confirm that the United Kingdom will recognize the state of Palestine by the United Nations General Assembly in September, unless the Israeli government takes substantive measures to end the horrible situation in Gaza, accepts a high fire and commits a long -term sustainable peace, reviving the perspective of a solution of two states,” Starmer said in a press conference.
“This includes allowing the UN to restart the supply of help and make it clear that there will be no annexations in the West Bank,” he continued.
Starmer also delivered a message to “Hamas’ terrorists”, saying that “they must immediately release all hostages, register in a high fire, disarm and accept that they will not play role in the Gaza government.”
Prime Minister’s office also published a Written statement Making in echo of Starmer’s comments.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement On Tuesday that “the declaration of the Starmer.
“The change in the position of the British government at this time, after the French movement and the internal political pressures, constitutes a reward for Hamas and damages the efforts to achieve a high fire in Gaza and a framework for the release of hostages,” said the ministry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also reacted to Starmer’s statement, saying“Starmer rewards the monstrous terrorism of Hamas and punishes its victims. A jihadist state at the Israel border today will threaten Britain tomorrow. The appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will also fail you. It won’t happen. “
President Donald Trump talks to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Trump International Golf Links, in Aberdeen, Scotland, on July 28, 2025.
Jane Barlow/Pool through Reuters
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced last week that France would officially recognize Palestine as a state when the UN meets in September, and also requested “a high immediate fire, the release of all hostages and mass humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
The French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-NOël Barrot, applauded the announcement of Starmer.
“The United Kingdom joins today in the impulse created by France for the recognition of the State of Palestine. Together, through this fundamental decision and our combined efforts, we break the endless cycle of violence and reopen the perspective of peace in the region,” Barrot said.
At that time, the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that the United States “rejected” France’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state.
“This reckless decision only serves the propaganda of Hamas and delays peace. It is slapped to the victims of October 7,” Rubio wrote in a Declaration in x.
Starmer’s statement comes the same day that two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that Netanyahu is considering a plan to attach territories in Gaza.
“Netanyahu Prime Minister is considering a plan to annex territories in Gaza if Hamas does not accept a high fire plan. This is one of several options,” said a source.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement during a visit to the Weizmann Science Institute, which was beaten by an Iranian missile flood, in the central city of Iravot, Israel, June 20, 2025.
Jack Guez/Via Reuters
The news occurs less than a week after Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy in the Middle East, said that the United States was cutting high -fire conversations and bringing his negotiation team to Doha’s house, Qatar.
In Publish in x On July 24, Witkoff said Hamas “does not seem to be coordinated or acting in good faith.”
“While mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not seem to be coordinated or acting in good faith,” Witkoff wrote, partly. “Now we will consider alternative options to take hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza.”
Netanyahu echoed the Witkoff statement, saying that Israel was now “considering alternative options to take our hostages home”, and blamed Hamas for the collapse of negotiations.
“Special sent to the Middle East Steve Witkoff did well. Hamas is the obstacle to a hostage launch agreement,” Netanyahu said in a statement The day after Witkoff’s comments. “Together with our Americans, we are now considering alternative options to take our hostages home, end the Hamas terrorist rule and ensure lasting peace for Israel and our region.
Officials have not yet prepared what are the “alternative options” to return to the remaining hostages and end the war in Gaza.
In his own statement on Sunday, Hamas accused Witkoff and the Israelis of negotiating in bad faith and said that it makes no sense to continue negotiations in the current format.
“In the last round of negotiations, we achieved clear progress and we agreed greatly with what the mediators presented us, especially with respect to the issue of withdrawal, the prisoners and the entry of help,” said Hamas, partly. “They transmitted positive responses from the Zionist occupation, but we were surprised to discover that the occupation was withdrawing from the negotiations, and that the United States President of the United States to the Middle East, Witkoff, was in conflict with it.”
“We clearly declare: it makes sense to continue negotiations under the siege, extermination and hunger of our children, women and people in the Gaza Strip,” the statement continued.
The news also occurs when the Israel-Ahamas war reached AA Grim Millestone, with more than 60,000 Palestinians killed since October 7, 2023, according to the Ministry of Health of Hamas, led by Gaza.
Until Tuesday, 60,034 people in Gaza have been killed and 145,870 people have been injured, the ministry said.
With an estimated population of 2.3 million people in Gaza at the beginning of the war, the figure, if necessary, means that about 9% of the Palestinians in Gaza have been killed or wounded since then, according to an ABC news count.
The Ministry clarified that the Palestinians whom they say have died due to hunger have not been classified as “killed” in the war, but “died” due to malnutrition.
Humanitarian aid is isolated to the Palestinians about the city of Gaza, Strip de Gaza, July 28, 2025.
JEHAD ALSHRAFI/AP
At least 147 Palestinians, including 88 children, have died due to malnutrition as of Monday, according to the Ministry.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that they have occurred in Gaza and has denied that there is an official Israeli star policy.
“There is no star policy in Gaza, and there is no hunger in Gaza,” Netyahu said in comments in Jerusalem on Sunday, partly.
“We enable humanitarian aid during the duration of the war to enter Gaza. Otherwise, there would be no Gazanes,” Netanyahu said. “And what interceives the supply of humanitarian aid is a force: Hamas. Again, the reverse of truth. Hamas steals, steals this humanitarian aid and then accuses Israel not to supply it.”
Israeli officials have long accused Hamas Hamas of theft help, what Hamas denies.
A USAID analysis seemed to undermine some of the statements about the extent to which Hamas had allegedly stolen humanitarian aid. A presentation reviewed by ABC News, which examines more than 150 reported incidents that involved the theft or loss of humanitarian aid financed by the United States in Gaza, showed that the group could not find any evidence that Hamas participated in a generalized deviation of help to make this amount of hunger look in the strip.
In addition, a New report On Tuesday, since the integrated classification of the Food Safety Phase, a global initiative that monitors hunger, said that “the worst case of famine is developing in the gaza strip” and that “access to food and other essential items and services has collapsed to unprecedented levels.”
ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
