UK backs Palestinian statehood as part of peace deal

Over 220 MPs urge Keir Starmer to recognise Palestinian state now

FE Team | Published: July 26, 2025 21:35:36

LONDON, July 26 (Reuters/AFP/AP): Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday the British government would recognise a Palestinian state only as part of a negotiated peace deal, disappointing many in his Labour Party who want him to follow France in taking swifter action.
President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday France would recognise a Palestinian state, a plan that drew strong condemnation from Israel and the United States, after similar moves from Spain, Norway and Ireland last year.
After discussing with Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ways to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza, Starmer said he was focused on the "practical solutions" that he thought would make a real difference to ending the war.
"Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that," he said. "But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis."
Over 220 members of parliament - about a third of lawmakers in the House of Commons and mostly Labour members - wrote to Starmer on Friday urging him to recognise a Palestinian state.
Successive British governments have said they will formally recognise a Palestinian state when the time is right, without ever setting a timetable or specifying the necessary conditions.
London's Labour Mayor, Sadiq Khan, and Labour lawmakers on parliament's foreign affairs select committee said this week Britain should recognise a Palestinian state. A government minister, Shabana Mahmood, said doing so would bring "multiple benefits" and send a message to Israel.
Parliament's foreign affairs committee said on Friday "the government cannot continue to wait for the perfect time because experience shows that there will never be a perfect time."
One Labour member of parliament told Reuters there was unhappiness with Starmer in the party over the government's failure to take further diplomatic steps to condemn Israel.
"Most of us are outraged by what is happening in Gaza and think we are being too timid," the lawmaker said.
Starmer's approach to the issue has been complicated by the arrival in Scotland later on Friday of US President Donald Trump, with whom he has built warm relations.
In foreign policy terms, Britain has rarely diverged from the United States.
Israeli forces kill 11 people in Gaza
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli operations killed 11 people on Saturday in the Palestinian territory devastated by over 21 months of war.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the toll included four Palestinians killed in an air strike on the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City in the territory's north.
One other person was killed "after Israeli forces opened fire on people waiting for humanitarian aid" northwest of Gaza City, the agency said.
Eyewitnesses told AFP that several thousand people had gathered in the area to wait for aid.
One of them, Abu Samir Hamoudeh, 42, said the Israeli military opened fire "while the people were waiting to approach the distribution point", located near an Israeli military post in the Zikim area, northwest of Sudaniyah.
Another man was killed by a drone strike near the southern city of Khan Yunis, while one was killed by artillery fire in the Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza, the civil defence said.
Questioned by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the matter.
In a separate statement, the military said it was continuing its operations in Gaza, adding that it killed members of a "terrorist cell" which it accused of planting an explosive device targeting soldiers.
It added that over the past day the air force had "struck over 100 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip".
UK, French and German
leaders press Israel
over Gaza aid
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany demanded Israel allow unrestricted aid into Gaza to end a "humanitarian catastrophe," after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country will become the first major Western power to recognize a Palestinian state.
The joint statement, issued after a calll between Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, called for an an immediate ceasefire and said that "withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable," though it broke no new diplomatic ground. The leaders said they "stand ready to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political process that leads to lasting security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region," but did not say what that action might be.
Macron's surprise announcement exposed differences among the European allies, known as the E3, over how to ease the worsening humanitarian crisis and end the Israel-Hamas war. All three support a Palestinian state in principle, but Germany said it has no immediate plans to follow France's step, which Macron plans to formalize at the United Nations General Assembly in September.