Israel Gaza latest: Arab world calls for Hamas disarmament while Netanyahu slams Starmer’s pledge as ‘reward for terrorism’ – UK Times

In an unprecedented move, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have for the first time urged Hamas to disband to pave the way for a Palestinian state.

They signed a statement condemning the October 7 attacks and told Hamas to surrender control, along with 14 other countries, including Britain and France.

Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a furious response after Sir Keir Starmer pledged to recognise Palestine unless Israel takes urgent steps to end the war in Gaza, accusing the prime minister of “appeasing terrorists”.

Responding on social media, the Israeli prime minister said: “Starmer rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims.”

Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters has said recognising a Palestinian state while hostages remain rewards terrorism in response to ‘growing European initiatives to recognise a Palestinian state’.

“Recognizing a Palestinian state while 50 hostages remain trapped in Hamas tunnels amounts to rewarding terrorism,” the Forum said.

“Such recognition is not a step toward peace, but rather a clear violation of international law and a dangerous moral and political failure that legitimizes horrific war crimes.”

Last year, Ireland, Norway and Spain recognised a Palestinian state with its borders to be demarcated as they were prior to the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

However, they also recognised that those borders may change in any eventual talks to reach a final settlement, and that their decisions did not diminish their belief in Israel’s fundamental right to exist in peace and security.

About 144 of the 193 member states of the United Nations recognise Palestine as a state, including most of the global south as well as Russia, China and India.

But only a handful of the 27 European Union members do so, mostly former Communist countries as well as Sweden and Cyprus.

The UN General Assembly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine in November 2012 by upgrading its observer status at the world body to “non-member state” from “entity”.

The transport secretary tied herself in knots when she was faced with questions over the conditions for the recognition of Palestine, following pushback to the government’s announcement.

There has been growing backlash to the position, with the government facing criticism for using Palestinian statehood as leverage, as well as confusion over whether the release of the hostages held by Hamas will be one of the conditions for recognition.

Millie Cooke, Political Correspondent writes:

In the decades since the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the UK has broadly supported official recognition of a state of Palestine.

So why has it taken more than a century for a government to sign up to it, asks Donald Macintyre:

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has said the United Nations, rather than Israel, is to blame for hunger in Gaza.

Huckabee told Newsmax on Tuesday that the UN has not distributed lifesaving food supplies in Gaza and Hamas is also interfering.

“The UN, unfortunately, wouldn’t help,” Huckabee said. “They had 900 trucks full of food, sitting undelivered, sitting in the sun, rotting.”

“What I will tell you is the reason those problems exist is not because Israel is being unkind and unfair,” he said. “It’s because Hamas has made life a hellhole for the people who are trying to live there.”

Here, The Independent asks experts about what the UK recognising Palestinian statehood would mean in practice:

The chair of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee has suggested that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is not an ally of the UK.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she acknowledged the long term relationship between Britain and Israel, but said the Israeli prime minister’s administration is no longer doing what its people want.

“We are long term allies. We remain long term allies. But not with this far right government, not with the way that it is behaving. With Israel and with the Israeli people who are led by a government who is not doing what they want. They want peace,” she said.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s “furious” response to Sir Keir Starmer’s statement on the recognition of Palestine shows Britain is “not irrelevant”, the chair of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee has said.

It comes after the Israeli PM issued a statement saying Sir Keir is rewarding “Hamas’s monstrous terrorism”, adding: “Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”

Denying claims that the UK is no longer relevant on the world stage, Emily Thornberry told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If we were completely irrelevant, why has Netanyahu completely lost it overnight?”

She added: “It’s not exactly a considered diplomatic careful statement really. It’s a furious statement.”