French President Emmanuel Macron announced France will formally recognize the State of Palestine, joining a growing number of European countries amid mounting calls to end the war in Gaza and provide humanitarian aid.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that France will establish formal diplomatic relations with Palestine, as Europe intensifies efforts to bring the war in Gaza to an end. “True to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine,” Macron said in a statement online, pledging to formally announce the move at a United Nations meeting in September.
“The urgency today is to end the war in Gaza and to provide aid to the civilian population,” he wrote. “The French people want peace in the Middle East. It is up to us, the French, together with the Israelis, the Palestinians, and our European and international partners, to demonstrate that it is possible.”
Shortly after Macron’s announcement, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held an emergency call with France and Germany to discuss urgent measures to stop the violence and deliver desperately needed food aid to Gaza. Starmer described the suffering and starvation in Gaza as “unspeakable and indefensible,” and called Palestinian statehood “the inalienable right of the Palestinian people.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded, “a Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it.” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called Macron’s move “a disgrace and a surrender to terrorism, granting a reward and encouragement to the murderers and rapists of Hamas.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington “strongly rejects” Macron’s decision, calling it “a slap in the face” to the victims of Hamas’ October 7 attack. Rubio argued, “This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace.”
Eleven out of 27 EU member countries have already recognized Palestinian statehood, including Spain, Romania, Sweden, Ireland, and Bulgaria. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez welcomed France’s decision, saying, “The two-state solution is the only solution.” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris called Macron’s announcement an “important contribution.”
European criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza has intensified as the death toll in the besieged enclave nears 60,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the suffering in Gaza is “unbearable” and “must stop now.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently criticized Israel over an attack on a Catholic church in Gaza and called civilian deaths “unacceptable.” Italy has not yet recognized Palestine.
The United Nations has warned that Israel is blocking enough aid from reaching Gaza, where starvation-related deaths are increasing. “People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.
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