France recognises state of Palestine, Macron tells UN; Abbas says Hamas must ‘surrender their weapons’ – Middle East crisis live | Palestinian territories

Just to recap, the US and Israel boycotted today’s two-state conference at the UN. Israeli UN ambassador Danny Danon said Israel would discuss how to respond to the announcements of recognition after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to Israel next week.

“Those issues were supposed to be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians in the future,” Danon told reporters ahead of the conference.

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Donald Trump on 29 September in Washington before returning to Israel, as Reuters reports.

Netanyahu has rejected repeated calls to end Israel’s military offensive until Hamas is destroyed and has said a Palestinian state “will not happen”, calling recognition of statehood a “prize” for Hamas.

The US has told other countries that Palestinian recognition will create more problems, secretary of state Marco Rubio said this month.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese is preparing to meet the French president on the sidelines of the UN general assembly as he defends Australia’s recognition on Sunday of Palestinian statehood.

Ahead of his third official meeting with Emmanuel Macron, Albanese addressed the leaders’ summit on a two-state solution and compared the plight of Palestinians to that of the Jews before the creation of Israel, the Australian Associated Press reports.

“In recognising Palestine, Australia recognises the legitimate and long-held aspirations of the Palestinian people,” Albanese said. “It means real hope for a place they can call home.

This is the same hope that sustained generations of Jewish people.

In his speech to the conference – which has now wrapped up – Albanese also urged the Israeli government to “accept its share of responsibility” for the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.

After France’s recognition of Palestinian statehood on Monday, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco also announced or confirmed their recognition of a Palestinian state.

It came a day after the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal also recognised statehood.

Germany, Italy and Japan took part in the UN conference but did not recognise such a state, the AP reports.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez has called for a state of Palestine to be admitted to the UN.

“This conference marks a milestone but it’s not the end of the road,” he said at the UN general assembly. “It’s only the beginning.

“The state of Palestine must be a full member of the United Nations,” said Sanchez, an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza.

“The process for the state of Palestine to join this organisation must be completed as soon as possible, on an equal footing with other states,” he said, quoted by the Associated Press.

Second, we must take immediate measures to stop the barbarism and make peace possible.

Spain – alongside Ireland and Norway – already recognised a Palestinian state in May.

Recognising Palestine is “protecting the pathway to peace”, Cooper adds.

She echoes others saying Hamas can have no future in the governance of Palestine.

In a carefully worded statement, Cooper condemns violence on both sides, citing “continued bloodshed, manmade famine, terrorism and hostage-taking, settlement expansion and settler violence”.

But more clearly, she says “settler expansion threatens the very viability of a Palestinian state”.

“The two state solution risks disappearing beneath the rubble – that is what extremists on both sides want,” Cooper says.

UK foreign secretary says Palestinian statehood is ‘inalienable right’

Luxembourg becomes latest nation to recognise Palestine