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BBC News, Toronto<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Prime Minister Mark Carney has said Canada plans to recognise a Palestinian state in September, becoming the third G7 nation to make such an announcement in recent days.<\/p>\n Carney said the move depends on democratic reforms, including the Palestinian Authority holding elections next year without Hamas.<\/p>\n His remarks come a day after the UK announced it would recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agreed to a ceasefire and other conditions and a week after France unveiled a similar plan. <\/p>\n Israel’s foreign ministry rejected Canada’s announcement, calling it “a reward for Hamas”. Most countries – 147 of the UN’s 193 member states – formally recognise a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Carney said Canada would formally recognise the state of Palestine at the upcoming UN General Assembly. <\/p>\n He cited the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, and the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas as reasons behind Canada’s dramatic shift in foreign policy.<\/p>\n “The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable and it is rapidly deteriorating,” Carney told reporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n He said a recognition of Palestinian statehood would hinge on commitments by the Palestinian Authority to fundamentally reform its governance and to demilitarise the territory.<\/p>\n Canada had long been committed to a two-state solution as part of a negotiated peace process, Carney said, but he added “this approach is no longer tenable”.<\/p>\n “The prospect of a Palestinian state is being eroded before our eyes,” he said. <\/p>\n Carney told the news conference he had spoken with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas earlier on Wednesday about the announcement. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Palestinian Authority controls parts of the West Bank through the Fatah party, led by Abbas, while Hamas runs Gaza. Neither territory has held an election since 2006.<\/p>\n Carney’s announcement was criticised by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n It said in a post on X that Canada’s plan “harms the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of the hostages”.<\/p>\n Canada’s Conservatives also took issue with Carney’s announcement.<\/p>\n “Recognising a Palestinian state in the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist atrocities sends the wrong message to the world,” the opposition party said in a statement. <\/p>\n The prime minister has been under pressure to address Palestinian statehood since the UK and France – close allies of Canada – came out with their own statements on the issue in recent days. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Nearly 200 former Canadian ambassadors and diplomats signed a letter on Tuesday calling on Carney to recognise a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n Canada’s principles, the letter <\/b>said, “are being abandoned daily with the massive displacement, indiscriminate bombardment and starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the violent attacks by extremist settlers in the West Bank”.<\/p>\n Asked whether he was influenced by the UK and France’s announcements, or whether he had consulted US President Donald Trump, Carney responded that Canada made its own foreign policy decisions.<\/p>\n If France and the UK do formally recognise Palestinian statehood, the US – a strong ally of Israel – will be the only permanent member of the UN Security Council not to do so.<\/p>\n The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.<\/p>\n More than 60,000 people have since been killed in Gaza, and 154 people, including 89 children, have died from malnutrition, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n