President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that France will officially recognize Palestine as a state, in an announcement that comes amid snowballing global anger over people starving in Gaza.
The mostly symbolic move puts added diplomatic pressure on Israel as its genocidal war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip rage.
Many European leaders welcomed Macron's announcement, describing it as a key step toward achieving peace in the Middle East.
France will formalize the decision at the United Nations General Assembly in September, Macron said in a post on social media platform X. "The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,″ he noted.
France is now the biggest Western power to recognize Palestine, and the move could pave the way for other countries to do the same. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe.
