London (Caasimada Online) – Britain warned Tuesday it would recognize a Palestinian state this September unless Israel takes immediate steps to halt an “appalling” humanitarian crisis in Gaza, a dramatic ultimatum that signals growing international pressure on Israel over the nearly two-year war.
The announcement from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government drew a furious rebuke from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who decried the move as a reward for terrorism.
The British warning came the same day an international hunger monitor, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), reported that a worst-case famine scenario was unfolding in the besieged Gaza Strip, where Palestinian authorities said the death toll from Israel’s offensive had now surpassed 60,000.
“The British government will move to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September,” a Downing Street statement said, “unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, reaches a ceasefire, makes clear there will be no annexation in the West Bank, and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a two-state solution.”
The move aligns Britain with France, which announced a similar intention last week, intensifying the diplomatic isolation of Israel over its conduct of the war.
Netanyahu swiftly condemned the decision. “This rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism & punishes its victims,” he posted on the social media platform X. “A jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, however, welcomed the move as “bold,” according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
‘Famine thresholds’ reached
The diplomatic standoff unfolded against a backdrop of deepening misery in Gaza. The war, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, has devastated the coastal enclave.
“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the IPC said in its alert Tuesday. The food security monitor stated that “famine thresholds” for acute food insecurity have been crossed throughout most of the territory and that it would expedite a formal analysis that could lead to an official declaration of famine.
Such a declaration, a technical determination that a specific set of criteria for starvation and death has been met, would represent a catastrophic failure by the international community and massively increase pressure on Israel, which controls all access points to Gaza.
Gaza’s health authorities reported the number of hunger-related deaths has reached 147, including 88 children. Shocking images of emaciated children have circulated globally in recent weeks.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar acknowledged Tuesday that the situation was “tough” but insisted claims of starvation were “lies.”
The United States, Israel’s most critical ally, appeared divided. President Donald Trump, who initially said he did “not mind” if Britain recognised a Palestinian state, later revised his position. Speaking aboard Air Force One on Tuesday, he said he did not believe Hamas “should be rewarded” with statehood.
Spiralling death toll
The new Palestinian death toll, now at over 60,000, marks another grim milestone in a conflict that is the deadliest in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian saga. The figure, from the Hamas-run health ministry, does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but is considered broadly reliable by the United Nations and other international bodies. Officials say thousands more are missing, presumed dead under the rubble.
Israel launched its massive air and ground campaign after Hamas militants stormed across the border on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s military says 454 of its soldiers have been killed since the ground invasion began.
Fighting continued to rage on Tuesday. Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least 30 people, including 14 women and 12 children, according to doctors at Al-Awda Hospital. In a separate incident, hospital officials said 13 people were killed by Israeli fire along the Salahudeen Road, a major artery, as they waited for aid trucks.
Despite Israel announcing humanitarian pauses on Sunday, the UN World Food Programme said Tuesday it still lacked the necessary permissions to deliver sufficient aid.
Saar said 5,000 aid trucks had entered Gaza in the last two months and that Israel would assist with airdrops, a method aid agencies have consistently described as inefficient and insufficient to meet the scale of the need.