Canada plans to recognise Palestinian state, raising allies' pressure on Israel

Canada plans to recognise the State of Palestine at a meeting of the United Nations in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday, ratcheting up pressure on Israel as starvation spreads in Gaza.

The announcement came after France said last week it would recognise a Palestinian state and a day after Britain said it would recognise the state at September's UN General Assembly meeting if the fighting in Gaza, part of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, had not stopped by then.

Carney told reporters that the reality on the ground, including starvation of people in Gaza, meant "the prospect of a Palestinian state is literally receding before our eyes".

"Canada condemns the fact that the Israeli government has allowed a catastrophe to unfold in Gaza," he said.

Carney said the planned recognition was based in part on repeated assurances from the Palestinian Authority, which represents the State of Palestine at the UN, that it was reforming its governance and is willing to hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas "can play no part".

The announcements by some of Israel's closest allies reflect growing international outrage over Israel's restrictions on food and other aid to Gaza in its war against Hamas members, and the dire humanitarian crisis there. A global hunger monitor has warned that a worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in the enclave.

The Gaza health ministry reported seven more hunger-related deaths on Wednesday, including a two-year-old girl with an existing health condition. The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said the Israeli military killed at least 50 people within three hours on Wednesday as they tried to get food from UN aid trucks coming into the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel and its closest ally, the US, both rejected Carney's statements.

"The change in the position of the Canadian government at this time is a reward for Hamas and harms the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of the hostages," the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made similar comments after the French and British announcements.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said President Donald Trump also sees recognition of the State of Palestine as wrongly "rewarding Hamas".

US special envoy Steve Witkoff is due to travel to Israel on Thursday to discuss Gaza. Trump said this week he expected centers to be set up to feed more people in the enclave.

The State of Palestine has been a non-member observer state of the UN General Assembly since 2012, recognised by more than three-quarters of the assembly's 193 member states.

Jonathan Panikoff, former deputy US national intelligence officer on the Middle East, said recognition of Palestine is intended "to increase pressure on Israel to compel it to return to a two-state paradigm." But he said Canada's announcement is "unlikely to be anything more than symbolic and risks undermining their relationship with a longtime ally in Israel".

French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke with Carney before Canada's announcement, said the recognition of Palestine will "revive a prospect of peace in the region".