Displaced Palestinians move with their belongings southwards on a road in the Nuseirat refugee camp area in the central Gaza Strip. Photo / Eyad Baba, AFP
Recognition of a Palestinian state by Britain, Canada and Australia has drawn sharply contrasting reactions, with Palestinians in Gaza hailing it as a sign of hope while Israelis voiced anger and concern.
In Gaza, many saw the recognition as an affirmation of their existence after nearly two years of war between Hamas and Israel.
“We shouldn’t just be numbers in the news,” said Salwa Mansour, 35, displaced from Rafah to Al-Mawasi, which the Israeli military has declared a humanitarian zone.
“This recognition shows that the world is finally starting to hear our voice and that in itself is a moral victory.
“Despite all the pain, death and massacres we’re living through, we cling to anything that brings even the smallest bit of hope,” she added.
Britain and Canada became the first members of the Group of Seven advanced economies to take the step to recognise a Palestinian state in a bid to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza.
In an effort to seize Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban centre, the Israeli military has recently intensified its air assaults and launched a major ground offensive.
So far more than 550,000 people have fled the city and moved southward, the military said on Sunday.
On Sunday, at least 32 people were killed in Gaza City in Israeli strikes, according to the territory’s civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority.
Mohammed Abu Khousa, a resident of Deir el-Balah, said he hoped that other countries would also follow suit in recognising a Palestinian state.
“When a country like Britain and Canada recognise us, it chips away at Israel’s legitimacy and gives our cause a new spark of hope,” he said.
“This could push more countries to recognise us, and hopefully bring an end to the war.”
But not all Palestinians were positive about the decision, with some expressing scepticism over its ultimate outcome.
Recognition alone “is not enough, because there are countries that have previously recognised Palestine. They recognised years ago, but it did not lead to any results”, said Mohammed Azzam, a resident of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
“On the contrary, every day the settlers’ attacks increase, the killing increases, the arrests increase, the raids and thefts increase, and the checkpoints fill the entire West Bank.
“They have cut off the West Bank, its cities and villages. Even if the European countries recognised [Palestine], in reality this does not help us at all.”
Following the move on Sunday by Britain, Canada and Australia, far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir both called for the annexation of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, in contravention of international law.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, violence has soared in the West Bank, and Israel has expanded settlements throughout the Palestinian territory.
In Jerusalem, Israelis saw the move as dangerous and premature.
“I don’t feel that a terrorism place like Gaza, where even their own people don’t get what they need, should be a country,” said Tamar Lomonosov, a resident of Beit Shemesh.
“They’re just trying to find a solution to kill and fight with Israel.”
Muriel Amar, a 62-year-old Franco-Israeli who was speaking before France’s own planned recognition, warned that the move would ignore key realities, including the fate of hostages still held in Gaza.
“As long as they haven’t returned home, I don’t see how we can consider turning the page,” she said.
“It would also be a confirmation for terrorist groups like Hamas that they are in the right, and it would cause… bitterness on the Israeli side.”
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
During their attack Palestinian militants also took 251 hostages, of which 47 still remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
Since then Israel’s retaliatory military response has killed at least 65,283 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures which the United Nations finds reliable.
A senior Hamas official has hailed Britain, Canada and Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state, describing it as a victory for the rights of Palestinians.
“These developments represent a victory for Palestinian rights and the justice of our cause, and send a clear message: no matter how far the occupation goes in its crimes, it will never be able to erase our national rights,” senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi told AFP.
Hamas said the recognition must be accompanied by “practical measures”.
These, it said, should include an immediate halt to “the genocidal war being waged against our people in the Gaza Strip and confronting the ongoing annexation and judaisation projects in the West Bank and Jerusalem”.
-Agence France-Presse