LONDON (AP) — Britain has announced that it will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza, stops building settlements in the West Bank and commits to a two-state solution.
The U.K. followed France, which declared last week that it will recognize Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
More than 140 countries have already taken that step, but France and Britain are significant as members of the Group of Seven and the U.N. Security Council. The two countries hope their bold – if largely symbolic – diplomatic moves will help add pressure on Israel to ease a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza and breathe life into a moribund peace process.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday that Britain will recognize a Palestinian state in September, “unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term, sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.”
He said that included “allowing the U.N. to restart the supply of aid, and making clear there will be no annexations in the West Bank.″
Starmer also said Hamas must release all the hostages it holds, agree to a ceasefire, disarm and “accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza” — though he did not make those conditions for recognition. Britain says Hamas is a terrorist organization with no role in a two-state solution.
The U.K. has not made clear whether it will recognize a Palestinian state if Israeli hostages are still being held in Gaza.
Britain has for decades supported an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, but insisted recognition must come as part of a peace plan to achieve a two-state solution.
U.K. officials increasingly worry that such a solution is becoming all but impossible – not only because of the razing of Gaza and displacement of most of its population during 22 months of war, but because Israel’s government is aggressively expanding settlements in the West Bank, land Palestinians want for their future state. Much of the world regards Israel’s occupation of the West Bank as illegal.
“The moment to act is now,” Cabinet minister Heidi Alexander told Times Radio. "There's the effective annexation of the West Bank happening.”
Starmer is also under mounting domestic pressure to do something as horror spreads at the scenes of hunger in Gaza.
More than 250 of the 650 lawmakers in the House of Commons signed a letter in recent days urging the British government to recognize a Palestinian state. Opinion polls suggest far more Britons support recognition than oppose it, though a large number are undecided.
Israel quickly condemned the British move. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejects the two-state solution on both nationalistic and security grounds, said Starmer’s announcement “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims.”
The families of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas were also critical.
“Recognizing a Palestinian state while 50 hostages remain trapped in Hamas tunnels amounts to rewarding terrorism,” said the Hostages Family Forum, which represents many hostages’ relatives. Emily Damari, a British-Israeli national who was held captive for more than a year, called Starmer’s stance “a moral failure.”
The British statement was welcomed by the Palestinian Authority, which Britain views as a legitimate representative of Palestinians. It has limited autonomy in pockets of the occupied West Bank.
Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian Authority’s envoy in London, said Britain’s statement “is a corrective to over a century of dispossession, during which the Palestinian people have been deprived of our land, liberty and lives.”
In practice, Britain’s influence on Israel is limited. The U.K. government has suspended free trade talks and halted some arms shipments to Israel over its conduct of the war, but is not a major economic or military partner.
History has, however, given Britain a particular interest and role in the Middle East.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Britain bears a “special burden of responsibility” as the former governing power of what was then Palestine and author of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which backed the establishment of a Jewish homeland, but also pledged to protect the rights of the Palestinian population.
“This has not been upheld, and it is a historical injustice which continues to unfold,” Lammy said at the U.N. on Tuesday.
Most of Britain’s main political parties support a two-state solution. But the right-of-center opposition Conservatives said Starmer’s announcement was premature.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state is only meaningful if it is part of a formal peace process and cannot happen while hostages are still being held in terrorist captivity and while Hamas’ reign of terror continues,” said Priti Patel, the party’s foreign affairs spokeswoman.
Ed Davey, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, welcomed Starmer’s statement as a step forward but said the prime minister should not use Palestinian statehood as “a bargaining chip.”
Britain and France hope other countries will follow their move. On Tuesday, European Union member Malta said it, too, would recognize a Palestinian state in September.
Germany, a major European power and strong ally of Israel, remains a holdout. Chancellor Friedrich Merz reiterated his country’s position that recognition of a Palestinian state “can be one of the last steps on the road to realizing a two-state solution,” but that Berlin has no plans for recognition “in the short term.”
Real clout rests with the U.S., and Starmer’s cautious approach may be designed to persuade President Donald Trump to take a tougher line with his ally Netanyahu. The prospects are uncertain, to say the least. Asked about Britain’s stance on Tuesday, Trump said: “We have no view on that.”
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce was more definitive, calling Starmer's announcement “a slap in the face to the victims of October 7” and saying that it “rewards Hamas.”
Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East expert at international affairs think tank Chatham House, said there is “no doubt” that a global majority supports Palestinian statehood, but that’s not enough to make it a reality.
“British recognition or French recognition doesn’t make it internationally recognized,” he said. “You need the (U.N.) Security Council — and that is not going to happen because of a certain person in the White House.”
Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this story.
People take part in a protest outside Downing Street in London, Tuesday July 29, 2025, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer gathered senior ministers for an urgent Cabinet meeting on Gaza. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
People take part in a protest outside Downing Street in London, Tuesday July 29, 2025, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer gathered senior ministers for an urgent Cabinet meeting on Gaza. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a statement inside No. 10 Downing Street on the day the cabinet was recalled to discuss the situation in Gaza, in London, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Toby Melville, Pool Photo via AP)
HAVANA (AP) — Trumpets and drums played solemnly at Havana's airport Thursday as white-gloved Cuban soldiers marched out of a plane carrying urns with remains of the 32 Cuban officers killed during a stunning U.S. attack on Venezuela.
Nearby, thousands of Cubans lined one of Havana’s most iconic streets to await the bodies as the island remained under threat by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The soldiers' shoes clacked as they marched stiff-legged into the headquarters of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and placed the urns on a long table next to the pictures of those killed. Tens of thousands of people paid their respects, saluting the urns or holding their hand over their heart, many of them drenched from standing outside in a heavy downpour.
Thursday’s mass funeral was only one of a handful that the Cuban government has organized over the past half-century.
The soldiers were part of the security detail of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during the Jan. 3 raid on his residence to seize the former leader and bring him to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges.
State television also showed images of more than a dozen people it said were wounded combatants from the raid, accompanied by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez after arriving Wednesday night from Venezuela. Some were in wheelchairs.
Tensions between Cuba and the U.S. have spiked, with Trump recently demanding that the Caribbean country make a deal with him before it is “too late.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
Trump also has said that Cuba will no longer live off Venezuela's money and oil. Experts warn that the abrupt end of oil shipments could be catastrophic for Cuba, which is already struggling with serious blackouts and a crumbling power grid.
Officials unfurled a massive flag at Havana's airport as President Miguel Díaz-Canel, clad in military garb, stood silent next to former President Raúl Castro, with what appeared to be the relatives of those killed looking on nearby.
Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas called the slain soldiers “heroes” of an anti-imperialist struggle spanning both Cuba and Venezuela. In an apparent reference to the U.S., he said the “enemy” speaks of “high-precision operations, of troops, of elites, of supremacy.
“We, on the other hand, speak of faces, of families who have lost a father, a son, a husband, a brother,” Álvarez said.
The events demonstrate that “imperialism may possess more sophisticated weapons; it may have immense material wealth; it may buy the minds of the wavering; but there is one thing it will never be able to buy: the dignity of the Cuban people,” he said.
Carmen Gómez, a 58-year-old industrial designer, was among the thousands of Cubans who lined a street where motorcycles and military vehicles thundered by with the remains of those killed.
“They are people willing to defend their principles and values, and we must pay tribute to them,” Gómez said, adding that she hopes no one invades her country. “It’s because of the sense of patriotism that Cubans have, and that will always unite us.”
The 32 military personnel ranged in age from 26 to 60 and were part of protection agreements between the two countries.
Officials in Cuba have said they expect a massive demonstration Friday across from the U.S. Embassy to protest the deaths.
“People are upset and hurt ... many do believe that the dead are martyrs” of a historic struggle against the United States, analyst and former diplomat Carlos Alzugaray told The Associated Press.
In October 1976, then-President Fidel Castro led a massive demonstration to bid farewell to the 73 people killed in the bombing of a civilian flight financed by anti-revolutionary leaders in the U.S. Most of the victims were Cuban athletes.
In December 1989, officials organized a ceremony to honor the more than 2,000 Cuban combatants who died in Angola during Cuba’s participation in a war that defeated the South African army.
In October 1997, memorial services were held following the arrival of the remains of guerrilla commander Ernesto “Che” Guevara and six of his comrades, who died in 1967.
The latest mass burial is critical to honor those slain, said José Luis Piñeiro, a 60-year-old doctor who lived for four years in Venezuela.
“I don’t think Trump is crazy enough to come and enter a country like this, ours, and if he does, he’s going to have to take an aspirin or some painkiller to avoid the headache he’s going to get,” Piñeiro said. “These were 32 heroes who fought him. Can you imagine an entire nation? He’s going to lose.”
The remains arrived a day after the U.S. announced $3 million in additional aid to help the island recover from the catastrophic Hurricane Melissa. The first flight took off on Wednesday, and a second flight was scheduled for Friday. A commercial vessel also will deliver food and other supplies.
Cuba had said on Wednesday that any contributions will be channeled through the government.
But U.S. State Department foreign assistance official Jeremy Lewin said Thursday that the U.S. was working with Cuba’s Catholic Church to distribute aid, as part of Washington's efforts to give assistance directly to the Cuban people.
“There’s nothing political about cans of tuna and rice and beans and pasta,” he said Thursday, warning that the Cuban government should not intervene or divert supplies. “We will be watching, and we will hold them accountable.”
Lewin said the Cuban government has a choice to: “Step down or better provide towards people.” Lewin added that “if there was no regime,” the U.S. would provide “billions and billions of dollars” in assistance, as well as investment and development: “That’s what lies on the other side of the regime for the Cuban people.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said the U.S. government was “exploiting what appears to be a humanitarian gesture for opportunistic and politically manipulative purposes.”
Coto contributed from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
People line up outside the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces where the remains are on display of the Cuban officers who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured President Nicolas Maduro, as it sprinkles rain in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Military members line up outside the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces where the urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured President Nicolas Maduro, are on display in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Military members pay their last respects to Cuban officers who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, at the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces where the urns containing the remains are displayed during a ceremony in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A motorcade transports urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, through Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Soldiers carry urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, at the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Adalberto Roque /Pool Photo via AP)
A motorcade transports urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, through Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A motorcade transports urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, through Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
People line the streets of Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, to watch the motorcade carrying urns containing the remains of Cuban officers killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Workers fly the Cuban flag at half-staff at the Anti-Imperialist Tribune near the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in memory of Cubans who died two days before in Caracas, Venezuela during the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
