Spain, Ireland and Norway recognize a Palestinian state. Why does that matter?

Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized a Palestinian state on Tuesday, a step toward a long-held Palestinian aspiration that was fueled by international outrage over the civilian deaths and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip following Israel’s offensive.

The joint decision by two European Union countries plus Norway, a nation with a strong diplomatic tradition in peacemaking, may generate momentum for the recognition of a Palestinian state by other EU countries and could spur further steps at the United Nations, deepening Israel’s isolation.

Previously seven member of the 27-nation European Union officially recognized a Palestinian state. Five of them are former east bloc countries who announced recognition in 1988, as did Cyprus, before joining the bloc. Sweden's recognition came in 2014.

The Czech Republic, an EU member, says that the 1988 recognition by the former Czechoslovakia — of which it then formed a part — does not apply to the modern state. Slovakia's Foreign Ministry says that the two sides confirmed their mutual recognition when Slovakia was becoming independent in 1992-93, and that the Palestinian state has a fully functioning embassy in Bratislava since 2006.

EU member Slovenia is also moving in the same direction. Prime Minister Robert Golob said his government will decide on the recognition of a Palestinian state on Thursday and forward its decision to parliament for final approval.

Some 140 of the about 190 countries represented in the U.N. have already recognized a Palestinian state.

Here’s a look at how and why the new European announcements could be important:

A U.N. partition plan in 1947 called for the creation of a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian state, but Palestinians and the wider Arab world rejected it because it would have given them less than half of the land even though Palestinians made up two-thirds of the population.

The Arab-Israeli war the following year left Israel with even more territory, Jordan in control of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and Egypt in control of Gaza.

In the 1967 war, Israel seized all three territories, and decades of on-again, off-again peace talks have failed.

The United States, Britain and other Western countries have backed the idea of an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel as a solution to the Middle East’s most intractable conflict, but they insist Palestinian statehood should come as part of a negotiated settlement. There have been no substantive negotiations since 2009.

Though the EU countries and Norway won’t be recognizing an existing state, just the possibility of one, the symbolism helps enhance the Palestinians’ international standing and heaps more pressure on Israel to open negotiations on ending the war.

Also, the move lends additional prominence to the Middle East issue ahead of June 6-9 elections to the European Parliament.

Diplomatic pressure on Israel has grown as the battle with Hamas stretches into its eighth month. The U.N. General Assembly voted by a significant margin on May 11 to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine in a sign of growing international support for a vote on full voting membership. The Palestinian Authority currently has observer status.

The leaders of Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Malta said in March they were considering recognizing a Palestinian state as “a positive contribution” toward ending the war.

“This is a historic decision that has a single goal, and that is to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said before his Cabinet certified the decision.

The Palestinian flag was raised in Dublin outside Leinster House, the seat of the Irish parliament.

"There are practical actions you can take as a country to help keep the hope and destination of a two-state solution alive at a time when others are trying to sadly bomb it into oblivion,” Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said that “for more than 30 years, Norway has been one of the strongest advocates for a Palestinian state. Today, when Norway officially recognizes Palestine as a state, is a milestone in the relationship between Norway and Palestine.”

While dozens of countries have recognized a Palestinian state, none of the major Western powers has done so, and it is unclear how much of a difference the move by the three countries might make.

Even so, their recognition would mark a significant accomplishment for the Palestinians, who believe it confers international legitimacy on their struggle.

Little would likely change on the ground in the short term. Peace talks are stalled, and Israel’s hardline government has dug its heels in against Palestinian statehood.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz lashed out at Spain on X, saying Sánchez’s government was “being complicit in inciting genocide against Jews and war crimes.”

Israel, which rejects any move to legitimize the Palestinians internationally, recalled its ambassadors to Ireland, Norway and Spain after they announced the decision last week.

Steps like the ones by the three European countries will harden the Palestinian position and undermine the negotiating process, Israel says, insisting that all issues should be solved through negotiations.

Israel often responds to foreign countries’ decisions deemed as going against its interests by summoning those countries’ ambassadors and also punishing the Palestinians through measures such as freezing tax transfers to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.

Some 140 countries have already recognized a Palestinian, more than two-thirds of the United Nations' membership.

Some major powers have indicated their stance may be evolving amid the outcry over the consequences of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between noncombatants and fighters in its count. Israel launched the offensive following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in which militants stormed across the Gaza border into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostage.

Britain has said no recognition of a Palestinian state could come while Hamas remains in Gaza, but that it could happen while Israeli negotiations with Palestinian leaders were in progress.

France has indicated that it isn’t ready to join other countries in recognizing a Palestinian state, even if it isn’t opposed to the idea in principle. German has said it will not recognize a Palestinian state for the time being.

Follow AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

A Spanish fighting bull billboard, is painted with the colours of the Palestinian flag and a writing that reads "free Palestine", on the outskirts of Madrid, Tuesday, May 28, 2024. Spain and Norway have moved to formally recognize a Palestinian state with Ireland to follow suit on Tuesday in a coordinated effort by the three western European nations. While dozens of countries have recognized a Palestinian state, none of the major Western powers has done so. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

From right, Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares Bueno and Ireland's Foreign Minister Micheal Martin pose for a photo, at the end of a media conference, during talks on the Middle East, in Brussels, Monday, May 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

The Palestinian flag flies outside Leinster House, Dublin, following the decision by the Government to formally recognise the Palestinian state, Tuesday May 28, 2024. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks in the Spanish Parliament in Madrid, May 22, 2024. European Union countries Spain and Ireland as well as Norway announced Wednesday May 22, 2024 their recognition of a Palestinian state. Malta and Slovenia, which also belong to the 27-nation European Union, may follow suit amid international outrage over the civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip following Israel's offensive. (Eduardo Parra/Europa Press via AP)

The three Irish Government leaders from left, Minister Eamon Ryan, Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tanaiste Micheal Martin speak to the media during a press conference outside the Government Buildings, in Dublin, Ireland, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. European Union countries Spain and Ireland as well as Norway on Wednesday announced dates for recognizing Palestine as a state.(Damien Storan/PA via AP)

FILE - People gather in support of the Palestinain people, amid the conflict with Israel, in front of the parliament building in Oslo, Norway, on May 19, 2021. European Union countries Spain and Ireland as well as Norway on Wednesday announced dates for recognizing Palestine as a state. (Berit Roald/NTB via AP, File)

FILE - A boy waves a Palestinian flag as demonstrators march during a protest in support of Palestinians and calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, in Barcelona, Spain, on Jan. 20, 2024. European Union countries Spain and Ireland as well as Norway on Wednesday announced dates for recognizing Palestine as a state. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

United States Vice President Kamala Harris urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a cease-fire deal with Hamas soon so that dozens of hostages held by the militants in Gaza since Oct. 7 could return home.

Before heading to Florida on Friday to meet with former President Donald Trump, Netanyahu was in Washington, where on Wednesday he delivered a scathing speech to Congress in which he vowed to achieve “total victory” against Hamas and denounced American opponents of the war in Gaza as “idiots.”

Hamas slammed the speech and accused Netanyahu of obstructing efforts to end the war and return the hostages.

The Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 39,100 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The United Nations estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

Here’s the latest:

JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Friday that it has killed 500 militants in Lebanon since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, but did not provide evidence to support the claim or a breakdown of the figure.

The claim conflicts with a tally by the Associated Press, which puts the number killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon also at around 500, but including about 90 civilians. By the AP count, about 350 of those killed in Lebanon were Hezbollah fighters and 50 were allied with other militant groups.

The military did not respond to AP inquiries to provide more information on the figure, which was made public in a Friday speech to brigade commanders in Israel’s north.

The military’s commanding Officer of the Northern Command, Ori Gordin, said the military had killed more than 500 militants, the vast majority of them Hezbollah, and destroyed “thousands of infrastructure targets” across the border.

Israel and Lebanon have been exchanging cross-border fire since the day after the Hamas attack on Israel. The violence has damaged huge swaths of land on both sides of the border and killed about 20 soldiers and 13 civilians on the Israeli side of the border.

WASHINGTON — CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to travel to Rome on Sunday to meet with Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials about the ongoing hostage and cease-fire negotiations, according to a U.S. official familiar with his travel plans.

The official, who was not authorized to discuss the CIA director’s travel plans and requested anonymity, said Burns would be meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, Mossad director David Barnea and Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel.

The meeting comes after President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris separately met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and underscored to him that it was critical for Israel and Hamas to come to agreement that will release remaining hostages and the remains of those who died in captivity.

Separately, Brett McGurk, the White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, is expected to head back to the Mideast next week for talks with regional leaders about the effort to reach a hostage agreement.

By Aamer Madhani

WASHINGTON — Israel and Hamas are in agreement on the basic framework of the three-phase deal as it was presented by President Joe Biden in late May, according to senior Biden administration officials.

Top administration officials, including Biden, have repeatedly expressed cautious optimism for weeks that a deal is close to being sealed. And families of American hostage families said that Biden and Netanyahu also left them with the sense during a White House meeting on Thursday that a deal could potentially arrive in the coming days.

But there are some serious sticking points between the two sides that still need to be resolved, the officials said.

Among the differences are Hamas’ demands that Israeli troops immediately leave the narrow strip of land between Gaza and Egypt known as the Philadelphi corridor, according to officials. Until May, Egypt had exercised full control of the roughly 14-kilometer (9-mile) strip.

Other kinks that still need to be worked out include differences on the number of Palestinian prisoners that would be released during the first phase and Israel’s push to establish a vetting system for displaced Palestinians returning to northern Gaza after a cease-fire is established, the officials said.

By Aamer Madhani

WASHINGTON — The White House announced Friday that U.S. officials will halt the deportation of Lebanese citizens who have run afoul of immigration laws because of the ongoing conflict on Lebanon’s border with Israel.

President Joe Biden said in a statement that “humanitarian conditions in southern Lebanon have significantly deteriorated” and “many civilians remain in danger” due to the ongoing low-level fighting between Israeli forces and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The two sides have engaged in near-daily clashes since October, which have killed around 500 people on the Lebanese side, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups, but also including some 90 civilians.

The White House statement said Biden had “determined that it is in the foreign policy interest of the United States to defer for 18 months the removal of any Lebanese national” with some exceptions, including anyone convicted of a felony or who the Secretary of Homeland Security determined “presents a danger to public safety.” The Lebanese citizens would be authorized to work during that period.

U.S. diplomats have been attempting to broker an end to the hostilities on the Lebanon-Israel border amid fears that the conflict might blow up into a full-on war that could become a regional conflagration. Hezbollah has said it will halt its fire only when there is a cease-fire in Gaza, while Israeli officials have threatened an invasion or expanded military operation in Lebanon in an attempt to drive the militant group back from the border.

JERUSALEM — An Israeli court decided Friday to extend the ban on Al-Jazeera in Israel for over a month, bolstering the far-right government’s attempt to permanently bar the news agency from operating in the country.

With the decision, the state’s order to bar Al-Jazeera from operating in Israel is valid for another 45 days. It’s the third extension since the order was enacted in May, confiscating the channel’s broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel’s reports and blocking its websites. It’s believed to be the first time Israel has shuttered a foreign news outlet operating in country.

In the Friday decision, obtained by the AP, Judge Hagai Brenner wrote that the state had provided convincing evidence — which he did not make public — that Al-Jazeera’s coverage posed a security threat to Israel, including confidential information indicating that Al-Jazeera’s journalists in the Gaza Strip were embedded with militant organizations. He argued that Al-Jazeera’s coverage has incited specific acts of violence against Israelis and revealed activities of the Israeli military in Gaza.

“I did not determine that these broadcasts are made with the intention of deliberately harming the security of the state, and there is certainly a lot of journalistic interest in them,” he wrote in the decision, “But their harm is bad and risks the lives of the IDF fighters and the home front.”

Since the ban began in May, Al-Jazeera has moved many of its English-language service correspondents operating in Israel to Amman, Jordan. Others still operate from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has met with billionaire Elon Musk in Washington following his speech to the U.S. Congress.

Writing on the social media platform X, Netanyahu said Friday he and Musk discussed Artificial Intelligence and “technological cooperation with Israel” during their meeting Wednesday. He posted a picture of the two men shaking hands.

Musk was present at Netanyahu’s address to Congress and has been an ally of Israel throughout the war. The Tesla CEO did not make any public statement about the meeting with Netanyahu.

Musk announced Wednesday that his satellite internet service Starlink was active for a hospital in Gaza, a move made in coordination with Israel.

Gaza has experienced frequent communications blackouts as the infrastructure crumbles with months of fighting and a lack of fuel.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s far-right lawmakers criticized United States Vice President Kamala Harris’ call for a cease-fire deal to end the war in Gaza.

“There will be no end to the war, Mrs candidate,” Israeli National Security Adviser Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote Friday on X. Ben-Gvir is one of the most visible right-wing ministers and a key ultranationalist ally to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Harris, who is backed by enough delegates to become Democratic nominee in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, met Thursday with Netanyahu in Washington, saying that bringing home hostages was imperative and describing widespread suffering among Gaza’s civilian population as fighting continues.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, claimed Harris had “revealed” that a cease-fire deal amounted to surrendering to Hamas. “It is forbidden to fall into this trap!” he wrote.

Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are opposed to a cease-fire deal in Gaza and say Israel should continue fighting until Hamas is vanquished. Netanyahu is accused by many in Israel of drawing out the war, partially to appease them. Their combined resignations would be enough to topple the Prime Minister’s coalition government and prompt new elections.

Militants in Gaza hold about 115 hostages taken from Israel on Oct. 7. Many of the hostages are believed to be dead.

CANBERRA, Australia — Canada, Australia and New Zealand issued a joint statement Friday on the need for an urgent cease-fire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

“The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue,” the statement from the three prime ministers said.

“Israel must listen to the concerns of the international community. The protection of civilians is paramount and a requirement under international humanitarian law. Palestinian civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas. It must end,” the statement said.

The prime ministers said they were “gravely concerned” about the prospect of further escalation across the region and condemned Iran’s mid-April attack on Israel. They also called on Iran to refrain from further destabilizing actions in the Middle East and demanded that Iran and its affiliated groups, including Hezbollah, cease their attacks.

Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, saying it aimed to ease pressure on Gaza. The exchange of fire and airstrikes, which has been limited to a few kilometers (miles) on each side of the border, has displaced tens of thousands of people in both countries.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — A Hamas leader in the occupied West Bank died in Israeli custody Thursday evening after a deterioration in his health, according to a Palestinian prisoners rights group.

Sheikh Mustafa Abu Arra, 63, was arrested in October and was recently transferred from Ramon Prison to Soroka hospital where he died, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said.

The rights group said Abu Ara was subjected to “torture and starvation” during his detention, and did not receive adequate medical treatment. The group did not elaborate further. Israel’s prison authorities have not commented on the circumstances of Abu Ara’s death, and could not immediately be reached.

Abu Ara was arrested shortly after the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war under a process known as administrative detention, the group said, whereby detainees can be held indefinitely for security reasons without trial and charge. Rights groups and recently released Palestinian detainees say conditions in Israeli-run prisons have deteriorated since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.

Since the early 1990s, Abu Ara was arrested several times and spent roughly 12 years in Israeli-run prisons, the prisoners group and Hamas said.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks while meeting with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Israeli soldiers hold wreaths of flowers as they stand in formation during the funeral of Sergeant Kiril Brodski at the Kiryat Shaul cemetery, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, July 25, 2024. The Israeli military said it has recovered the bodies of five Israeli hostages, including Brodski, in the area of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, that were abducted by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Jonathan Dekel-Chen, center, father of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, along with other families of hostages in Gaza, speaks with reporters following their meeting with President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Palestinian Child Siwar Abdel-Hadi, 2, wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, is carried by medics at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. Siwar Abdel-Hadi is the sole survivor in her family after an Israeli airstrike on her home in central Gaza killed her parents and three siblings. She becomes one of thousands of children orphaned in Israel's campaign in Gaza against Hamas. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag near the Washington Monument during a protest against the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House during a rally, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Demonstrators protest the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House during a rally at Lafayette Park, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive before a meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)