• Spain, Ireland and Norway will formally recognize a Palestinian state today, in a decision slammed by Israel as a “reward” for Hamas more than seven months into the war in Gaza.

The three European countries believe their initiative has strong symbolic impact, which will likely encourage others to follow suit.

They also point to Norway and Spain’s historic role in advancing Israel-Palestinian peace efforts: in 1991, the two sides sat down together for the first time at a Madrid peace conference that paved the way for the 1993 Oslo Accords.

• “Recognizing the state of Palestine is about justice for the Palestinian people,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said in Brussels yesterday.
• It is also “the best guarantee of security for Israel and absolutely essential for reaching peace in the region,” he said alongside his Irish and Norwegian counterparts.

The plans were unveiled last week in a coordinated announcement by their prime ministers, with formal recognition to take place in all three countries today.

Washington and most Western European nations have said they are willing to one day recognize Palestinian statehood, but not before agreement on thorny issues like the status of Jerusalem and final borders.

Tuesday’s move by Spain, Ireland and Norway will mean 145 of the UN’s 193 member states now recognize Palestinian statehood.

• These include many Middle Eastern, African and Asian countries, but not the United States, Canada, most of western Europe, Australia, Japan or South Korea..

Source: AFP via TOI

Global condemnation of Israel over Rafah camp ‘massacre’

There has been global outrage at Israel’s attack on a tent camp in Rafah for displaced people which killed 45 people, including many women and children who died in a huge inferno.

Here are some of the comments from around the world.

• African Union: “The State of Israel continues to violate international law with impunity and in contempt of an ICJ ruling two days ago ordering an end to its military action in Rafah,” AU Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said.
• Chile “strongly condemns the indiscriminate attack by the [Israeli military] on a civilian refugee camp in Rafah”.
• Colombia: “The massacre continues,” President Gustavo Petro said.
• Egypt deplores “a systematic policy aimed at widening the scope of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip to make it uninhabitable”.
• European Union: “I condemn this in the strongest terms,” foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
• France: “These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians,” President Emmanuel Macron said.
• Qatar condemned the “Israeli army’s aggression against a refugee camp in the city of Rafah, and in the entire Gaza Strip, and its continued violation of international law”.
• Turkey: “We will do everything possible to hold these barbarians and murderers accountable who have nothing to do with humanity,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
• United Nations: “This horror must stop,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
• The Rafah attack was “the latest – and possibly the most cruel – abomination”, UN humanitarian aid chief Martin Griffiths added.

Source: Al Jazeera