Germany has no short-term plans to recognize Palestine – DW – 07/25/2025
France's decision to formally recognize Palestinian statehood continues to garner worldwide attention.
However, Berlin said it has no short term plans to follow in Paris' footsteps
The US and Israel are the strongest critics, while the move was hailed in the Middle East and by European countries that have already taken the step.
Meanwhile, a Reuters report suggests a USAID analysis found no massive theft of Gaza aid.Following France's announcement that it plans to recognize Palestinian statehood later this year, Germany said on Friday it has no such plans in the short term.
In a statement, the German government stressed it "remains convinced that only a negotiated two-state solution will bring lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians."
But it reiterated that its position that recognizing Palestinian statehood is "one of the final steps" for a two-state solution, stressing that "Israel's security is of paramount importance to the German government."
Germany said it was helping create the conditions for Palestinian statehood, including support for the Palestinian Authority. It added that it agreed with France, the UK and its regional partners on the importance of the two-state solution "regardless of the well-known differences of opinion on the question of the right time for recognition."
Berlin went on to list what it considers more pressing priorities for the time being, including an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, including German nationals, and the disarming of Hamas.
"Israel must immediately and drastically improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and provide the suffering civilian population with urgently needed supplies in a humane manner," the statement read.
Germany also said that "there must be no further step towards the annexation of the West Bank," after a vote in the Knesset backed the annexation of the Palestinian-occupied territory.
The French NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused Israel of deliberately starving the Palestinians in Gaza as a weapon of war, warning that its own staff in the enclave were themselves struggling to find sufficient food.
In a statement released on Friday, the MSF reported that one out of every four children between the ages of six months and five years old, as well as one out of every four pregnant and breastfeeding women, were malnourished in the devastated enclave.
Since May 18, the number of people enrolled for malnutrition treatment has quadrupled, whereas rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have tripled in the last two weeks.
"This is not just hunger — it is deliberate starvation, manufactured by the Israeli authorities," the statement read. "The weaponization of food to exert pressure on a civilian population must not be normalized."
The organization also lambasted the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) over the nearly daily deaths of Palestinians shot by Israeli authorities near its distribution centers.
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"What we are seeing is unconscionable; an entire people being deliberately cut off from food and water, all while the Israeli forces commit daily massacres as people scramble for scraps of food at distribution sites," says Amande Bazerolle, MSF head of emergency response in Gaza. "Any shred of humanity in Gaza has been wiped out in the ongoing genocide."
The report noted that the scarcity of food "is no longer about what people can afford. There is barely any food available in most of the strip."
Meanwhile, Reuters interviewed United Nations and humanitarian agency representatives, who said the enclave was on the brink of running out of the specialized therapeutic food needed to save the lives of severely malnourished children.
Salim Oweis, a spokesperson for UNICEF in Amman, Jordan told Reuters that supplies of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), a crucial treatment, would be depleted by mid-August if nothing changed.
An analysis within the US government found no evidence supporting Israeli and US claims that the Palestinian militant group Hamas was systematically stealing US-funded humanitarian supplies.
The US and Israel have backed a new armed private aid operation under the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The operation has seen around 1,000 Palestinians seeking food supplies shot and killed by Israeli forces near the GHF militarized distribution site.
The analysis was conducted by a bureau within the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and made public via an exclusive report by the Reuters news agency.
It was completed in late June, examining 156 incidents of theft or loss of US-funded supplies reported between October 2023 and May of this year.
Reuters cited a US State Department spokesperson as disputing the findings, saying there is video evidence of Hamas looting aid but stopping short of providing such evidence.
Israel insists it is committed to allowing in aid but that it must control it to prevent theft by Hamas.
The UN World Food Program estimates that a quarter of Gaza's over 2 million Palestinians face famine-like conditions, while thousands suffer from acute malnutrition. World Health Organization officials and doctors in the enclave report that children and others are dying of starvation.
Israel blames Hamas for the crisis, which has intensified since Israel intensified its blockade on Gaza in March, followed by making the GHF the sole distributor of aid in the enclave in May, replacing UN-led humanitarian aid distributors.
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France's plans to recognize Palestinian statehood were met with widespread approval in the Middle East.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry called it a "historic decision," calling on other countries to follow in France's "positive" steps and "adopt serious positions that support peace and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."
France and Saudi Arabia cohost a ministerial United Nations meeting on Palestinian statehood next week.
Jordan's Foreign Ministry also expressed appreciation for the decision, describing it as "a step in the right direction toward the realisation of the two-state solution and the end of the occupation."
Palestinians also welcomed the move. Senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh said it "reflects France's commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people's rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state."
The militant group Hamas, which Israel, the United States, the European Union and others designated as a terrorist organization, said the move would do "justice to our oppressed Palestinian people and support their legitimate right to self-determination."
Spain, an EU member which recognized Palestinian statehood last year, also welcomed the move.
"Together, we must protect what Netanyahu is trying to destroy. The two-state solution is the only solution," said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, an outspoken critic of Israel's offensive in Gaza.
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The US and Israel are so far the strongest opponents of France's decision to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the plans on Thursday.
According to a tally by the French AFP news agency, it would bring the number of countries that now recognize or plan to recognize Palestinian statehood to at least 142. France would be the first G7 power to do so.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it a "reckless decision."
"This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7," Rubio wrote on X.
Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, left 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. Around 250 more were abducted and taken hostage in Gaza.
Israel's subsequent war has so far killed over 59,000, according to the health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave. The UN considers the figures reliable.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move "rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became."
"A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel - not to live in peace beside it," he said.
The world is still reeling from France's announcement that it plans to recognize Palestinian statehood in September.
This comes amid a new humanitarian emergency in the Gaza Strip. Media organizations are warning that their journalists, who have reported on the war for nearly two years, are now among Gaza's starving population.
This blog will bring you the latest on the dire situation in Gaza as well as news, videos and analyses on the broader Middle East region.
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