UK could recognise Palestinian state in September: PM

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has issued an ultimatum to Israel amid warnings that the “worst-case scenario of famine” is unfolding in the territory.

Jul 30, 2025, updated Jul 30, 2025

Source: Keir Starmer

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has issued an ultimatum to Israel to improve the lives of people in Gaza or the UK will be prepared to recognise a Palestinian state.

Starmer set a September deadline for Israel to commit to a peace process and allow more aid into the Gaza Strip.

It comes amid warnings that the “worst-case scenario of famine” is unfolding as starvation spreads in the territory.

United Nations-backed food security agency, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), said access to food had plummeted to “unprecedented levels”.

It warned that “mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths”.

Starmer said the Palestinian people have “endured terrible suffering”.

“Now, in Gaza, because of a catastrophic failure of aid, we see starving babies, children too weak to stand, images that will stay with us for a lifetime. The suffering must end,” he said on Tuesday (British time).

Starmer said his government would assess in September “how far the parties have met these steps” but that no one would have a veto over the decision.

He made the decision after recalling his cabinet during the summer holidays on Tuesday to discuss a proposed peace plan being worked on with other European leaders and how to deliver more humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million people, a government statement said.

“He reiterated that there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas and that our demands on Hamas remain that they must release all the hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, accept that they will play no role in the government of Gaza and disarm,” it said.

Successive British governments have said they will formally recognise a Palestinian state when the time is right, without ever setting a timetable or specifying the necessary conditions.

A growing numbers of MPs in Starmer’s Labour Party have asked him to recognise a Palestinian state to push Israel towards action.

Pressure to formally recognise Palestinian statehood has mounted since French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country will do so in September.

Meanwhile, Germany has sent two military transport aircraft to Jordan to assist in airdrops of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

“This work may only make a small humanitarian contribution but it is an important signal: We are there, we are in the region, we are helping,” Merz said.

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The planes would be refuelled, filled up and equipped in Jordan before flying over the Gaza Strip, possibly as early as Wednesday, and by the weekend at the latest, Merz said.

Planes from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates dropped another 52 pallets of food over the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Tuesday.

Egyptian planes were also involved in the airdrops for the first time since Sunday, when Israel began allowing increased aid into the sealed-off Palestinian territory after months of restrictions, the military said.

The Israeli military on Sunday announced it was implementing daily “humanitarian” pauses in fighting to allow for aid to be safely distributed in the embattled strip amid increased international pressure over warners of imminent famine.

The military said Egypt, Jordan and the UAE were co-ordinating the airdrops with Israel.

Aid organisations such as Doctors Without Borders have criticised the method as ineffective and expensive compared to lorry aid deliveries.

They also note the danger to waiting civilians from the dropping pallets, which are attached to parachutes.

Scores of Palestinians in the Gazan town of Zawaida swam into the sea to retrieve what they could from airdrops of aid on Tuesday.

Kamel Qoraan returned to shore with a soaked bag of tea powder, saying that airdropping aid was “humiliating” and calling for the opening of border crossings for trucks.

Some people seemed relieved to get anything.

One boy smiled as he clutched a small sack of flour. One man had a can of beans.

Momen Abu Etayya said his son urged him to chase the airdrops, and dashed into the sea.

“I was only able to bring him three biscuits,” he said.

-with AP and DPA

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