Closing summary
It’s 3.40am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv and we’re about to wrap up this live coverage. You can find our full report on the latest developments here, and below is a recap of the key news lines. Thanks for reading.
The French president announced that France would recognise Palestine as a state. Emmanuel Macron posted on X on Thursday that he would formalise the “solemn” decision at the UN general assembly in September, saying: “There is no alternative.”
Israeli leaders including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu fiercely condemned Macron’s announcement. In a statement echoing his senior ministers, Netanyahu said Macron’s decision “rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became”.
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said the Trump administration would recall its consultation team from Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar. Witkoff said on X: “We have decided to bring our team home from Doha for consultations after the latest response from Hamas, which clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza … Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith.”
Israel also recalled its negotiating team following Hamas’s response, effectively suspending weeks of Qatar-mediated talks that had shown only limited progress.
Hamas called France’s recognition of a Palestinian state “a positive step” and urged all countries to do the same despite Israeli opposition. Saudi Arabia hailed the French recognition as a “historic decision”, while Ireland deputy prime minister Simon Harris called it an “important contribution towards implementing the two state solution”.
Keir Starmer said he would hold an “emergency call” on Friday with France and Germany on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, urging a ceasefire and steps towards Palestinian statehood. “The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible,” the British prime minister said. “We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe.”
The UN said on Thursday it did not know how many truckloads of aid were awaiting distribution inside the Gaza border because Israel had not granted it access. International criticism is growing over the plight of the more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 100 aid and rights groups have warned that “mass starvation” is spreading.
Updated
Looking now at Syria, the country has rejected Kurdish demands to keep their weapons, AFP quoted a government source as saying on Thursday, as a new round of talks on the Kurds’ integration into the state was set to begin.
The Kurds, who control large swathes of the north and east, are negotiating with the central government on the integration of their civil and military institutions into the state.
The source told the state broadcaster Al-Ikhbariya:
Talking about refusing to hand over weapons or maintaining an autonomous military force is completely unacceptable.
According to the source, such a position “contradicts the principles of unifying the national army and the agreement reached last March between Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi”.
In March, interim president Sharaa and SDF commander Abdi signed a deal to incorporate Kurdish institutions into the Syrian state. Talks have since been held regularly but progress has stalled.
Recent unrest in the south including Sweida province – where the new authorities have attempted to subdue the Druze minority – as well as ongoing violence targeting the Alawite community have deepened Kurdish concerns.
The Kurdish news agency Hawar said a planned meeting on Thursday in Paris between Kurdish representatives and a Syrian government delegation was postponed.
