GAZA CITY, Palestine: Hamas on Sunday welcomed Britain, Canada and Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state, calling it a victory for Palestinian rights and a rebuke to Israel’s occupation.
“These developments represent a victory for Palestinian rights and the justice of our cause, and send a clear message: no matter how far the occupation goes in its crimes, it will never be able to erase our national rights,” a senior Hamas official Mahmud Mardawi told AFP.
In a statement later on Sunday, Hamas said the recognition must be accompanied by “practical measures”.
These, it said, should include an immediate halt to “the genocidal war being waged against our people in the Gaza Strip and confronting the ongoing annexation and judaisation projects in the West Bank and Jerusalem,” the group said in a statement.
UK, Australia, Canada Recognise Palestinian State
Britain, Australia and Canada on Sunday recognised a Palestinian state in a coordinated, seismic shift from decades of Western foreign policy, triggering swift anger from Israel.
Portugal was also set to recognise Palestinian statehood later Sunday, as Israel comes under huge international pressure over its war against Hamas in Gaza and the dire humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
The UK and Canada became the first members of the Group of Seven advanced economies to take the step, with Australia following suit.
France and other nations are expected to follow at the annual UN General Assembly, which opens Monday in New York.
Palestinian President hails recognition
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas hailed Sunday’s recognition as “an important and necessary step toward achieving a just and lasting peace in accordance with international legitimacy.”
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the move as “absurd” and said it would “endanger” Israel’s existence.
US President Donald Trump said last week, after talks with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a state visit to the UK that “one of our few disagreements” was over Palestinian statehood.
A growing number of longtime Israeli allies have shifted their long-held positions as Israel has intensified its Gaza offensive since October 2023.
The Gaza Strip has suffered vast destruction, with a growing international outcry over the besieged coastal territory’s spiralling death toll.
Since October 23023, Israel’s bombardment campaign has killed at least 65,208 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.
Portugal said it would also formally declare its recognition in New York on Sunday.
“By acting now … we’re keeping alive the possibility of having two states,” Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said.
France to recognise Palestinian State along with other countries
French President Emmanuel Macron, in an interview that aired Sunday, said that France’s planned recognition of a Palestinian state will not include the opening of an embassy until Hamas frees the hostages it is holding in Gaza.
“It will be, for us, a requirement very clearly before opening, for instance, an embassy in Palestine,” Macron told CBS News in an interview taped Thursday.
France says it will recognise the Palestinian state along with other countries on Monday at the United Nations.
Macron also spoke out strongly against any plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza — which they want to be part of a future sovereign state — when rebuilding the territory.
“But if the precondition of such a plan is to push them out, this is just a craziness,” Macron said on “Face the Nation.”
“We should not be — for the credibility of the United States, for the credibility of France — we cannot be implicitly or explicitly complacent with such a project.”
