Armenia has said it would recognise a Palestinian state, prompting Israel to summon its ambassador for what its foreign ministry described as a “severe reprimand”.
Three-quarters of the 193 United Nations member nations have recognised a Palestinian state, including Ireland and Spain, although none of the major Western powers has done so.
Palestinians believe the recognitions confer international legitimacy on their struggle, especially as Israel’s war against Hamas, now in its ninth month, faces growing international criticism over the campaign of systematic destruction in Gaza and huge cost in civilian lives.
Also on Friday, the head of a major hospital in north Gaza said his staff have seen some 250 children suffering from malnutrition, with numbers rising daily due to acute food shortages.
Palestinians face widespread hunger as the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, which is now totally dependent on aid.
Meanwhile, Israel’s pledge to guard a new aid route into southern Gaza has fallen flat, as the UN and international aid organisations say a breakdown in law and order has made that route unusable.
On Friday the Israeli military said two soldiers were killed in combat in central Gaza, while three were severely injured.
Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,100 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Israel launched the war after Hamas’s October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.