New Zealand Considers Recognizing Palestinian State

The Australian government will recognize the State of Palestine during the UN General Assembly in New York, announced the country's Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.

"Peace can only be temporary" until Israelis and Palestinians have their own states, said the head of the government, explaining "that Australia will recognize the right of the Palestinian people to have their own state."

Similar announcements were recently made by the governments of France and Canada, while the UK announced it would follow suit if Israel does not address the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and reach a ceasefire agreement.

International pressure is mounting on the Israeli government to end the war in the Gaza Strip, which has lasted almost two years and caused a severe humanitarian crisis. Violence in the West Bank has also escalated since the war in the Gaza Strip began.

In total, three-quarters of the UN member states recognize the State of Palestine, which was declared by the exiled Palestinian leadership in the late 1980s.

In late July, Australia and 14 other Western countries, including France and Canada, "urged" the international community to recognize a Palestinian state.

Albanese stressed that he had received assurances from the Palestinian Authority that in "any future Palestinian state" there would be "no place" for the "terrorists of Hamas."