Interim Summary
Here’s where things currently stand:
Israel starts airdrops with humanitarian aid in Gaza, a military spokesperson has told Reuters. The Israeli forces said humanitarian corridors would also be established for UN convoys, though it did not say when or where. The military also said it was prepared to implement “humanitarian pauses” in densely populated areas.
Despite its decision to resume aid drops, Israeli forces said its combat operations across Gaza “have not ceased”. In a statement on Saturday, the IDF said: “We will continue to operate in Gaza to return all hostages and to defeat Hamas, both above and below ground.”
Prior to Israel’s decision to resume aid drops, the United Arab Emirates issued a statement on Saturday, saying it will restart aid drops across Gaza. In a post on X, UAE’s foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, said: “The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a critical and unprecedented level. The United Arab Emirates remains at the forefront of efforts to deliver life-saving assistance to the Palestinian people.”
The Lebanese health ministry said three people were killed in Israeli strikes on the south on Saturday despite a ceasefire, as the Israeli military said one of them targeted a Hezbollah militant. “The Israeli enemy drone strike that targeted a vehicle” in Tyre district “killed one person”, a ministry statement said.
A Syrian diplomatic source said Saturday that a US-mediated meeting with Israeli officials in Paris this week sought to “contain the escalation” after recent sectarian violence in southern Syria prompted Israeli intervention. Israel launched strikes this month on Damascus and the Druze-majority Sweida province, saying it was acting both in support of the religious minority and to enforce its demands for a demilitarised southern Syria.
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Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza where Israeli forces have killed at least 60,000 Palestinians since October 2023 while forcibly displacing over 2 million survivors across the narrow strip:
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Prior to Israel’s decision to resume aid drops, the United Arab Emirates issued a statement on Saturday, saying it will restart aid drops across Gaza.
In a post on X, UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan said:
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a critical and unprecedented level. The United Arab Emirates remains at the forefront of efforts to deliver life-saving assistance to the Palestinian people. We will ensure essential aid reaches those most in need, whether through land, air or sea. Air drops are resuming once more, immediately. Our commitment to alleviating suffering and providing support is resolute and unwavering.”
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Despite its decision to resume aid drops, Israeli forces said its combat operations across Gaza “have not ceased”.
In a statement on Saturday, the IDF said:
“We will continue to operate in Gaza to return all hostages and to defeat Hamas, both above and below ground.”
Over the past 20 months, Israeli forces have killed at least 60,000 Palestinians across the narrow strip while forcibly displacing 2 million survivors amid widespread shortages in food, water, fuel and medical supplies due to Israeli aid restrictions.
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Israeli strike on south Lebanon kills three
The Lebanese health ministry said three people were killed in Israeli strikes on the south on Saturday despite a ceasefire, as the Israeli military said one of them targeted a Hezbollah militant.
“The Israeli enemy drone strike that targeted a vehicle” in Tyre district “killed one person”, a ministry statement said.
The Israeli military said that it “struck and eliminated” a Hezbollah commander who was “involved in efforts to rehabilitate the terrorist organisation in the area of Bint Jbeil” near the border.
It did not specify where the strike took place.
The Lebanese health ministry later reported that another Israeli strike in Tyre district, on the town of Debaal, killed two people. The state-run National News Agency reported that it targeted a house.
Syria says meeting with Israeli officials sought to 'contain escalation’
A Syrian diplomatic source said Saturday that a US-mediated meeting with Israeli officials in Paris this week sought to “contain the escalation” after recent sectarian violence in southern Syria prompted Israeli intervention.
Israel launched strikes this month on Damascus and Druze-majority Sweida province, saying it was acting both in support of the religious minority and to enforce its demands for a demilitarised southern Syria.
The Syrian diplomatic source told state television on Saturday that the recent Paris meeting “brought together a delegation from the foreign ministry and the general intelligence service with the Israeli side”, and addressed “recent security developments and attempts to contain the escalation in southern Syria”.
Updated
Israel starts aid airdrops
Israel starts airdrops with humanitarian aid in Gaza, a military spokesperson has told Reuters.
The Israeli forces said humanitarian corridors would also be established for United Nations convoys, though it did not say when or where.
The military also said it was prepared to implement “humanitarian pauses” in densely populated areas.
Updated
Israel will resume airdrop aid to Gaza on Saturday night, the Israeli military said, a few days after more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the territory.
“The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food to be provided by international organisations,” the military added in a statement.
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Summary
Here’s a wrap-up of the day’s key events:
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has strongly criticised the use of airdrops to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, calling them “inefficient” and a “distraction” from addressing the root causes of the crisis. “Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation,” said the UNRWA commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini. “They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction and screensmoke.”
Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 25 Palestinians overnight on Saturday, Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service reported. The majority of people were killed by Israeli gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, the Associated Press reports, citing staff at Shifa hospital, to which victims were transported.
Keir Starmer has confirmed the government will be “taking forward” plans to airdrop aid into Gaza and evacuate children who need medical assistance in an effort to relieve what Downing Street called an appalling situation. Speaking to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Saturday morning, the prime minister outlined the UK’s intentions to work with Jordan to carry out the plans.
A toddler and a 60-year-old woman were among those killed in an armed attack by the Sunni Jaish al-Adl Baluch group on a courthouse in Iran’s restive Sistan-Baluchestan province on Saturday.
Starmer rejected calls to immediately recognise a Palestinian state, after 221 MPs signed a letter urging the British government to recognise the state of Palestine at a meeting of the UN next week. While Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said on Saturday that recognising the state of Palestine before it is established could be counterproductive.
Updated
The Associated Press has this report on the impact of Gaza’s widespread famine – as a result of Israeli’s aid restrictions – on one family:
A mother pressed a final kiss to what remained of her 5-month-old daughter and wept. Esraa Abu Halib’s baby now weighed less than when she was born. On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid.
The baby was brought to the paediatric department of Nasser hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her trousers to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest.
The girl had weighed more than 3kg (6.6lbs) when she was born, her mother said. When she died, she weighed less than 2kg (4.4lbs). A doctor said it was a case of “severe, severe starvation”.
She was wrapped in a white sheet for burial and placed on the sandy ground for prayers. The bundle was barely wider than the imam’s stance. He raised his open hands and invoked Allah once more.
Zainab was one of 85 children to die of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past three weeks, according to the latest toll released by the territory’s health ministry on Saturday. Another 42 adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the same period, it said.
“She needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza,” Zainab’s father, Ahmed Abu Halib, told The Associated Press as he prepared for her funeral prayers in the hospital’s courtyard in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Dr Ahmed al-Farah, head of the paediatric department, said the girl had needed a special type of formula that helps babies allergic to cow’s milk. He said she hadn’t suffered from any diseases, but the lack of the formula led to chronic diarrhoea and vomiting. She wasn’t able to swallow, as her weakened immune system led to a bacterial infection and sepsis, and quickly lost more weight.
Updated
An attack by the jihadist separatist group Jaish al-Adl on a courthouse in Iran’s south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan has left at least six civilians, including a mother and child, dead and 22 wounded.
Updated
Twenty-eight doctors from Gaza are being held in Israeli prisons, eight of whom are senior consultants in surgery, orthopaedics, intensive care, cardiology and paediatrics, according to data from Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical organisation.
Twenty-one of those detained have been held for more than 400 days. HWW said none had been charged with any crimes by the Israeli authorities. Three healthcare workers have been detained since the start of July.
On Monday, the Gaza health ministry said an Israeli undercover force detained Dr Marwan al-Hams, head of the Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip. His whereabouts are unknown, and the Israeli authorities have yet to publish a statement on his detention. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization confirmed that two of its workers were taken into detention from a facility sheltering staff and their families in Deir al-Balah; one remains in Israeli custody.
For the full story, click here:
Updated
Palestinian health officials: Israeli forces killed at least 25 Palestinians as many waited for aid
Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 25 Palestinians overnight on Saturday, Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service reported.
The majority of people were killed by Israeli gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, the Associated Press reports, citing staff at Shifa hospital, to which victims were transported.
Those killed in strikes included four people in an apartment building in Gaza City, hospital staff and the ambulance service added.
Updated
Here is a summary of today's events:
Keir Starmer has confirmed the government will be “taking forward” plans to airdrop aid into Gaza and evacuate children who need medical assistance in an effort to relieve what Downing Street called an appalling situation. Speaking to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Saturday morning, the prime minister outlined the UK’s intentions to work with Jordan to carry out the plans.
A toddler and a 60-year-old woman were among those killed in an armed attack by the Sunni Jaish al-Adl Baluch group on a courthouse in Iran’s restive Sistan-Baluchestan province on Saturday.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has strongly criticised the use of airdrops to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, calling them “inefficient” and a “distraction” from addressing the root causes of the crisis.
The death toll from Israeli military operations in Gaza has reached 59,733, according to the latest update from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
At least 25 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and gunshots overnight, according to health officials and the ambulance service on Saturday, as ceasefire talks appear to have stalled and Palestinians in Gaza face famine.
Starmer rejected calls to immediately recognise a Palestinian state, after some 221 MPs signed a letter urging the British Government to recognise the state of Palestine at a meeting of the UN next week. While Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday that recognising the State of Palestine before it is established could be counterproductive.
The head of Oxfam has said airdrops of aid are “wholly inadequate, dangerous and dehumanising” after prime minister Keir Starmer confirmed the government will be moving ahead with plans to airdrop supplies.
Dr Halima Begum, Oxfam GB Chief Executive said: “Israel has been blocking humanitarian aid for months now, and it is deeply distressing to know that hundreds of tonnes of food are sat awaiting delivery just a few miles from camps where tens of thousands of people, including babies and children, are in the grips of starvation.
“While the Prime Minister has finally acknowledged the devastating scale of Israel’s actions this week, rhetoric alone will make no difference to the appalling suffering in Gaza – and only compounds the intellectual and moral incoherence of continued UK arms sales to Israel.
“Air drops of humanitarian aid are wholly inadequate, dangerous and dehumanising - a gesture and a distraction that do nothing to ensure Israel is meeting its obligations to stave off starvation. The UK must press Israel to lift the siege and allow the free flow of aid into and throughout Gaza, with the immediate opening of Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings a first step.“
The Israeli military told AFP that its troops fired “warning shots to distance the crowd” after identifying an “immediate threat” at an aid distribution point located near an Israeli military post in the Zikim area, northwest of Sudaniyah.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said another man was killed by a drone strike near Khan Yunis, while one was killed by artillery fire in the Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza.
The Israeli 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.
It said the air force had “struck over 100 terror targets” across Gaza over the previous 24 hours.
Keir Starmer has confirmed the government will be “taking forward” plans to airdrop aid into Gaza and evacuate children who need medical assistance in an effort to relieve what Downing Street called an appalling situation.
Speaking to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Saturday morning, the prime minister outlined the UK’s intentions to work with Jordan to carry out the plans.
The three leaders agreed to work closely together on a plan to “pave the way to a long-term solution and security in the region”.
Read our full report here:
The stench of decaying bodies hangs heavy in the streets of the provincial capital in Syria’s southern province of Sweida, where fighting recently erupted, AP reports. Once bustling roads now lie eerily silent, with only a few people passing by. In some areas, the destruction is overwhelming, with buildings and cars charred black.
At a bank branch, shattered glass covered the floor as an alarm blared nonstop. Walls are emblazoned with slogans graffitied by both sides in the recent conflict.
The devastation came after violent clashes broke out two weeks ago, sparked by tit-for-tat kidnappings between armed Bedouin clans and fighters from the Druze religious minority. The fighting killed hundreds of people and threatened to unravel Syria’s fragile postwar transition.
Syrian government forces intervened, ostensibly to end the fighting, but effectively sided with the clans. Some government fighters reportedly robbed and executed Druze civilians.
Associated Press journalists from outside the city were able to enter Sweida on Friday for the first time since the violence started on July 13. With a ceasefire largely holding, residents of Sweida are trying to pick up the pieces of their lives.
Toddler and 60-year-old woman among those killed in Iran terror attack
Jaish al-Adl Baluch confirmed the deaths of three of its members who were among the assailants in an armed attack by the Sunni group on a courthouse in Iran’s restive Sistan-Baluchestan province on Saturday
The group’s members died in the clashes with security forces in Zahedan, the capital of the far southeastern province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sistan-Baluchestan is home to Irans Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalisation and political exclusion.
A toddler and a 60-year-old woman were among those killed, as well as three soldiers and law enforcement personnel assigned to the courthouse, the head of the province’s judiciary told IRNA. He did not identify the sixth dead person. He said the attackers wore explosive vests and carried grenades. It was not clear if they had detonated them.
Jaish al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account, said it had killed at least 30 members of the judiciary and security forces. It said it targeted judges and court personnel, whom it accused of issuing death sentences and house demolition orders to Baluch citizens.
“We warn all judges and employees of the judiciary that Baluchestan will no longer be a safe place for them and death will follow them like terrifying shadows until retribution,” the group said in its statement.
It blamed security forces for the deaths of civilians, saying they had fired indiscriminately.
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The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, warned on social media that airdrops are “expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians” and won’t reverse the increasing starvation or prevent aid diversion.
In a post on X, Lazzarini said airdrops are a “distraction and screensmoke”.
He added: “A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements plus dignified access to people in need.”
#Gaza: airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians.
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 26, 2025
It is a distraction & screensmoke.
A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will.
Lift the siege, open the gates & guarantee safe movements…
Hamas find Trump remarks on Gaza talks breakdown 'surprising'
Hamas officials expressed surprise on Saturday at US President Donald Trump’s accusation that the group “didn’t really want” a ceasefire and hostage release deal for Gaza.
Trump made the allegation of Friday a day after Israel and the United States quit indirect negotiations with Hamas in Qatar that had lasted nearly three weeks.
“Trump’s remarks are particularly surprising, especially as they come at a time when progress had been made on some of the negotiation files,” Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.
“So far, we have not been informed of any issues regarding the files under discussion in the indirect ceasefire negotiations”, he added
Updated
The majority of the 25 killed overnight were killed by gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, said staff at Shifa hospital, where the bodies were brought.
During the shootings Friday night, Sherif Abu Aisha said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from the aid trucks, but as they got close, they realized it was from Israel’s tanks. That’s when the army started firing on people, he told The Associated Press. He said his uncle, a father of eight, was among those killed.
“We went because there is no food ... and nothing was distributed,” he said.
An attack by the jihadist separatist group Jaish al-Adl on a courthouse in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan killed at least nine people, including a mother and child, and wounded 22, Iranian media reported on Saturday.
Attackers stormed the building, shooting a number of people inside. They then launched a second attack with mortars and grenade launchers on the courthouse, where a clash that lasted three hours began with security forces, according to the Baluch human rights group Haalvsh.
Read our full report here:
Starmer, Macron and Merz to work 'closely together on a plan' for Gaza security
Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz have agreed to work “closely together on a plan” to “pave the way to a long-term solution and security in the region” of Gaza, Downing Street said.
In a readout of the Prime Minister’s call with the French President and German Chancellor, a Number 10 spokesperson said: “The three leaders talked about the situation in Gaza, which they agreed is appalling, and emphasised the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire, for Israel to lift all restrictions on aid and urgently provide those suffering in Gaza with the food they so desperately need.
“The Prime Minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance.
“They all agreed it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace.
“They discussed their intention to work closely together on a plan, building on their collaboration to date, which would pave the way to a long-term solution and security in the region.
“They agreed that once this plan was worked up, they would seek to bring in other key partners, including in the region, to advance it.”
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Syrian and Israeli officials held talks in Paris mediated by the United States about containing any escalation in southern Syria, Syria’s state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Saturday, citing a diplomatic source.
The diplomatic source said the meeting did not result in any final agreements but they agreed to continue talks and evaluate steps aimed at maintaining stability in southern Syria.
A senior Hamas official has rejected recent US accusations that the group has stolen humanitarian aid in Gaza, calling them “politically motivated and baseless”.
In a statement issued on Saturday, cited by Anadolu news agency, Izzat al-Rishq dismissed the allegations and criticised the US narrative around aid diversion.
His comments come in the wake of an internal study by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which examined 156 cases of lost or stolen aid between October 2023 and May 2025. According to the findings, there was no evidence that Hamas had benefitted from aid provided by the US.
Rishq said the focus on alleged aid theft diverts attention from what he called “the real obstacle to any ceasefire or humanitarian agreement: the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu”.
He also criticised recent comments from US officials, including Donald Trump and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, saying they “do not align with the assessments of the mediators and contradict the reality of the negotiation process”.
Airdrops of aid to Gaza 'inefficient' and a 'distraction', UN says
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has strongly criticised the use of airdrops to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, calling them “inefficient” and a “distraction” from addressing the root causes of the crisis.
“Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. “They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction and screensmoke”.
A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need.
Driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper and safer. It’s more dignified for the people of Gaza.
His comments come as the UK steps up involvement in international efforts to deliver aid by air.
On Friday, Sir Keir Starmer said the UK was working with Jordan on plans to carry out airdrops, after more than a third of MPs signed a letter calling for the government to recognise a Palestinian state.
A small team of British military planners and logisticians is also being deployed to assist Jordan with the logistics of delivering aid, the BBC reported.
Updated
Palestinian Health Ministry says 57 killed in past 24 hours
The death toll from Israeli military operations in Gaza has reached 59,733, according to the latest update from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
In the past 24 hours alone, 57 have been killed and 512 have been injured. Emergency crews say a number of victims remain trapped under collapsed buildings.
It also says that since 18 March 2025, when it began separately reporting figures after the temporary ceasefire came to an end, 8,581 people have been killed and 32,436 injured.
The ministry added that 29 people were killed and more than 165 injured in the past 24 hours while attempting to access aid.
This brings the total number of those killed while collecting aid to 1,121, with more than 7,485 injured, it said.
Some analysts say French president Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that France would become the first Western member of the United Nations Security Council to recognise a Palestinian state is an attempt to use the carrot of recognition to extract concessions from Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority which is a moderate rival to Hamas, and other regional players.
“Macron here is acting as a catalyst to get the Palestinians to deliver on the needed reforms, to get the Arabs to deliver on a stabilization force and the disarming of Hamas,” said Rym Momtaz, editor-in-chief of the Strategic Europe blog run by the Carnegie Europe think tank.
Others say while recognition has symbolic value, there will still be no functioning Palestinian state whenever the war in Gaza comes to an end.
“Recognition by a European heavyweight like France is indicative of the rising frustration with Israel’s intransigent policies,” said Amjad Iraqi, senior analyst at International Crisis Group.
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.
At least 25 killed by Israeli airstrikes and gunshots overnight
At least 25 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and gunshots overnight, according to health officials and the ambulance service on Saturday, as ceasefire talks appear to have stalled and Palestinians in Gaza face famine.
The majority of victims were killed by gunfire as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, said staff at Shifa hospital, where the bodies were brought.
Israel’s army didn’t respond to request for comments about the latest shootings.
Those killed in strikes include four people in an apartment building in Gaza City among others, hospital staff and the ambulance service said.
The strikes come as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have hit a standstill after the US and Israel recalled their negotiating teams on Thursday, throwing the future of the talks into further uncertainty.
In a statement posted on its Telegram account, the Sunni Jaish al-Adl group took responsibility for the attack in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province and urged “all civilians to immediately evacuate the area of clashes for their safety”.
Sistan-Baluchestan province, near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to Irans Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalisation and political exclusion.
The Baluch human rights group HAALVSH, quoting eyewitnesses, said several judiciary staff members and security personnel were killed or wounded when the assailants stormed the judges chambers.
Gunmen killed five civilians during "terrorist attack" in southeast Iran
Gunmen killed five civilians during a “terrorist attack” on a judiciary building in southeast Iran on Saturday before being killed themselves, state media reported.
“Unknown gunmen attacked the judiciary centre in Zahedan,” the capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, the judiciary’s Mizan Online said.
“Five people have been killed and 13 injured in this terrorist attack,” the report said while adding that the counts are “preliminary” and the toll may rise.
Separately, the official IRNA news agency reported that three of the attackers were killed during the assault, citing the regional headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Three diplomats told Reuters president Emmanuel Macron had to go it alone to recognise a Palestinian state as London did not want to face the wrath of the United States, and Ottawa took a similar stance.
“It became increasingly apparent that we could not wait to get partners on board,” said a French diplomat, adding France will work to get more states on board ahead of conference on a two-state solution in September.
A senior French official said: “If there is a moment in history to recognise a Palestinian state, even if it’s just symbolic, then I would say that moment has probably come.”
Keir Starmer is under intense pressure from his most senior cabinet ministers and more than a third of MPs to move faster on recognising a Palestinian state in response to Israel withholding aid to starving civilians in Gaza.
Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, are understood to be among ministers who believe the government should take the lead on Palestinian statehood alongside France.
The prime minister is facing a growing clamour to take action amid the international outcry over Israel’s actions, with charities saying that cases of severe malnutrition among children under five in Gaza City have tripled in the last two weeks.
Read our exclusive story on how Rayner and Cooper are understood to back action as 221 MPs sign a letter calling for UK recognition of statehood:
France’s decision to recognise Palestine at the next UN general assembly is an attempt to build momentum for change and make a break from the major western powers’ impassivity in the face of Israel’s mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza.
Emmanuel Macron’s declaration, announced in typically dramatic fashion on social media late on Thursday night, draws a line between the paths followed by the US and France over the Gaza war, and significantly raises the pressure on the UK, Germany and other G7 powers to pick a side.
Macron, Keir Starmer and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, held what the UK prime minister described as an “emergency call” on Friday, to coordinate positions. It led to a joint call for Israel to lift its food blockade immediately, an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas. But there was no apparent shift in Merz’s or Starmer’s position on recognition.
The British prime minister risks either provoking mutiny in his cabinet and party over Gaza or alienating White House. Read our analysis here:
Rates of severe malnutrition among children aged under five at Médecins Sans Frontières’ Gaza City clinic have tripled in the last two weeks, the charity has said, as starvation in the Israeli-besieged strip worsens.
The global aid community has sounded the alarm as Gaza descends deeper into mass starvation, with resulting deaths being reported daily as Israel allows only a trickle of aid into the territory.
MSF said a quarter of all young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women it screened at its clinics last week were malnourished, with the number of people needing care for malnutrition at its Gaza City location quadrupling since May.
MSF is one of the largest medical providers in Gaza, with more than 1,000 staff in the strip providing medical services ranging from maternity care to emergency surgery.
The charity blamed what it called an Israeli “policy of starvation” for the hunger crisis, as global condemnation grows over what more than 100 aid groups say is Israel’s blockade of most aid into Gaza. Read our full report here:
Which countries have recognised a Palestinian state?
This graphic shows which countries internationally have recognised a Palestinian state.
81 countries recognised Palestinian statehood in 1988, the year it declared independence, with South Africa recognising it in 1995, Brazil in 2010, Chile in 2011 and Thailand in 2012.
But more have recently followed suit in response to the plight of the people in Gaza. Spain and Ireland recognised a Palestinian state last year and Mexico made the recognition this year, while France has recently announced it is due to do so.
Updated
Twenty-eight doctors from Gaza are being held inside Israeli prisons, eight of whom are senior consultants in surgery, orthopaedics, intensive care, cardiology and paediatrics, according to data from Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical organisation.
Twenty-one of those detained have been held for more than 400 days. HWW said none had been charged with any crimes by the Israeli authorities. Three healthcare workers have been detained since the start of July.
On Monday, the Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli undercover force detained Dr Marwan al-Hams, head of Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip. His whereabouts are unknown, and the Israeli authorities have yet to publish a statement on his detention. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that two of its workers were taken into detention from a facility sheltering staff and their families in Dier al-Balah; one remains in Israeli custody.
A rising number of doctors are among hundreds of medical staff detained in Gaza, rights groups say. Read our full story here:
Updated
European nations debate Palestinian state recognition
European nations are becoming split on the question of whether to recognise a Palestinian state, as the desperate situation in Gaza continues.
Britain’s prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has rejected calls to immediately recognise a Palestinian state, after some 221 MPs signed a letter urging the British Government to recognise the state of Palestine at a meeting of the UN next week. While the PM said he was “unequivocal” about wanting to see a Palestinian state, he insisted this needed to be part of a “wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis”.
Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday that recognising the State of Palestine before it is established could be counterproductive. “I am very much in favour of the State of Palestine but I am not in favour of recognising it prior to establishing it,” Meloni told Italian daily La Repubblica. “If something that doesn’t exist is recognised on paper, the problem could appear to be solved when it isn’t,” Meloni added.
A German government spokesperson said on Friday that Berlin was not planning to recognise a Palestinian state in the short term and said its priority now is to make “long-overdue progress” towards a two-state solution.
It comes after French President Emmanuel Macron drew angry rebukes from Israel and the United States when he announced France intends to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly. Macron, who unveiled the decision on X, published a letter sent to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas confirming France’s intention to press ahead with Palestinian recognition and work to convincing other partners to follow suit.
According to an AFP database, at least 142 of the 193 UN member states - including France - now recognise the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in 1988.
Meanwhile today:
The Israeli military said a “projectile” was fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel on Saturday. “A projectile was identified crossing the Gaza Strip from the south and most likely falling in an open area,” the military said in a statement, adding that there were no injuries reported.
Four Palestinian-Americans have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the war in Gaza began and their families are losing hope for justice. They told AP Israel and its law enforcement have made them feel like culprits - by imposing travel bans and, in some cases, detaining and interrogating them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government was considering “alternative options” to ceasefire talks with Hamas after Israel and the US recalled their negotiating teams, throwing the future of the negotiations into further uncertainty. Netanyahu’s statement came as a Hamas official said negotiations were expected to resume next week and portrayed the recall of the Israeli and American delegations as a pressure tactic.
