UK mulls recognising Palestinian state as Gaza famine fears mount

British PM Keir Starmer said on Tuesday the UK would recognise a Palestinian state in September — unless Israel agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza and took steps towards long-term peace. He had called ministers together for a rare Cabinet meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza.

Just days back, as many as 221 UK MPs from nine political parties sent a letter to Starmer and his foreign secretary, calling on them to recognise Palestine.

Meanwhile, a hunger moniter warned the worst-case scenario of famine was unfolding in Gaza and immediate action was needed to avoid widespread death as the number of Palestinians reported killed in the conflict with Israel crossed the 60,000 threshold.

The alert by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) raised the prospect that the man-made starvation crisis in Gaza could be formally classified as a famine, in the hope that this might raise the pressure on Israel to let in far more food.

With international criticism growing, Israel announced steps over the weekend to ease aid access. But the World Food Programme (WFP) said it was not getting the permissions it needed to deliver enough aid since Israel began humanitarian pauses on Sunday.

For famine to be declared, at least 20% of the population must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.

Gaza health authorities have been reporting more and more people dying from hunger-related causes. The total stands at 147, among them 88 children, most of whom died in the last few weeks.

Israel has denied pursuing a policy of starvation. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that the situation in Gaza was “tough” but there were lies about starvation there.

The death toll of 60,000 underlines this as the deadliest war in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli airstrikes overnight killed at least 30 Palestinians in central Gaza.