As Western nations recognize Palestinian statehood, Palestinians doubt its impact

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians across the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank welcomed news that a flurry of Western countries have recognized a Palestinian state, while expressing doubt the move will improve their dire circumstances.

On Monday, France, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and Monaco announced or confirmed their recognition of a Palestinian state at the start of a high-profile meeting at the United Nations aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. Their announcements came a day after the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal did the same. More nations are expected to follow, in defiance of Israel and the United States.

The recognitions “have strengthened the Palestinian legitimacy by recognizing the rights of the Palestinian people,” said Saeed Abu Elaish, a medic from the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza who has lost more than two dozen family members, including his wife and their two daughters.

“It’s also a call to stop the genocide and massacres in Gaza, as well as to stop the settlers’ encroachment on the West Bank," he told The Associated Press.

Others downplayed the impact of the recognitions.

Huda Masawabi called them “worthless” as she joined a long line of fellow displaced people and overstuffed trucks heading south from Gaza City Sunday.

“We just hope to God that someone outside would acknowledge us or even deal with us as mere human beings,” she said.

The recent shift among nations is unlikely to have much if any short-term impact on the ground, where Israel is waging a major offensive in famine-stricken Gaza City and expanding settlements in the West Bank.

Longer-term, the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — territories seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — is widely seen internationally as the only way to resolve the conflict, which began more than a century before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Israel’s government was opposed to Palestinian statehood even before the outbreak of the war in Gaza, and now says it would reward Hamas. Israelis have long feared that groups like Hamas — which does not accept Israel’s existence — would use an independent state to attack it. Many also view the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people.

While Palestinians in Gaza told the AP that they hoped statehood recognition might lead to eventual independence, it comes as cold comfort in the midst of Israel’s devastating 23-month war.

“What matters to us is that the war stops,” Adeeb Abu Khalid, a displaced Palestinian from Gaza City, said as he walked in a Deir al-Balah market Tuesday. “Today we are living in a famine. People are in misery.”

The war has left the territory in ruins, displaced nearly all Palestinians, and killed at least 65,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. It doesn’t say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half.

In that context, demonstrations of support from abroad do provide a measure of solace to some, like Naser Asaliya, a displaced Palestinian from Gaza City, who are eager for any ray of hope.

“It will, God willing, have a positive impact on us, no matter the circumstances," he said. “We are a stricken people, and we hope for anything that makes us happy, no matter how simple, anything that supports us, strengthens our resolve in light of this unjust blockade.”

Around three-fourths of the 193-member United Nations now recognize a Palestinian state, but major Western nations had until recently declined to, saying one could only come about through negotiations with Israel.

Murad Banat, a Palestinian man displaced from Gaza’s central Bureij camp, said the most recent recognitions are “just talk.”

“Everyone is watching us like a play. Like a TV series, every day a TV series,” he said as children strode between tents in a packed displacement camp.

Since the war began, Israeli settlers have expanded their hold over vast swaths of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, pushing the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state out of reach.

The West Bank is the hoped-for heartland of a future Palestinian state. Palestinians say now-common Israeli military raids on Palestinian cities and towns ramped up settler violence, and state-backed settlement expansion has eaten away at their land, pushing the practical possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state from reach.

Nur al-Din Mansour, from Jenin, is one of tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians displaced from their homes since Israel launched a major operation across four northern camps early this year. He said recognition was a “step in the right direction.”

”But what we want," he added. "is not just a symbolic or nominal state — we want a fully sovereign state that preserves its borders. We demand a Palestinian state based on the borders of June 5, 1967.”

Mohammad Hammad, also displaced from Jenin Camp, said, ”All of this recognition, in the end, is meaningless. You’re talking nonsense about recognition while we’re still under occupation.”

“In the end, everything that’s happening is just ink on paper.”

Displaced Palestinians walks through a tent camp in Muwasi, an area that Israel has designated as a safe zone, in Khan Younis southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

CORRECTS ID: Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. Riyad Mansour arrives inside the General Assembly Hall, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, at UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Omar Al-Zaqzouq, 7, mourns over the body of his 2-year-old brother Malek, who was killed in an Israeli military strike, during his funeral outside Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza Strip as they walk carrying their belongings along the coastal road, near Wadi Gaza, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians chant national slogans and carry posters with pictures of President Mahmoud Abbas and read "you kept your promise," during a rally in support for Gaza and celebrating the latest western nations recognitions of the Palestinian state ahead of the United Nations General Assembly meetings, in the West Bank city of Ramallah Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

NEW YORK (AP) — Thursday was the final day to select an Affordable Care Act health insurance plan across much of the country, as the expiration of federal subsidies drives up health costs and lawmakers remain locked in a debate over how to address the issue.

That's when the open enrollment window ends in most states for plans that start in February. About 10 states that run their own marketplaces have later deadlines, or have extended them to the end of the month to give their residents more time.

The date is a crucial one for millions of small business owners, gig workers, farmers, ranchers and others who don't get their health insurance from a job and therefore rely on marketplace plans. A record 24 million Americans purchased Affordable Care Act health plans last year.

But this year, their decisions over health coverage have been more difficult than usual as clarity over how much it will cost is hard to come by. And so far, enrollment is lagging behind last year's numbers — with about 22.8 million Americans having signed up so far, according to federal data.

Last year, for months, it was unclear whether Congress would allow for the end-of-year expiration of COVID-era expanded subsidies that had offset costs for more than 90% of enrollees. Democrats forced a record-long government shutdown over the issue, but still couldn't get a deal done. So the subsidies expired Jan. 1, leaving the average subsidized enrollee with more than double the monthly premium costs for 2026, according to an analysis from the health care nonprofit KFF.

Still, the question of whether Congress would resurrect the tax credits loomed over Washington. Several enrollees told The Associated Press they have either delayed signing up for coverage or signed up with a plan to cancel as they anxiously watch what's happening on Capitol Hill.

Last week, the House passed a three-year extension of the subsidies after 17 Republicans joined with Democrats against the wishes of Republican leaders. But the Senate rejected a similar bill last year.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, has been leading a bipartisan group of 12 senators trying to devise a compromise and said this week that he expects to have a proposal by the end of the month. The contours of the senators’ bipartisan plan involves a two-year deal that would extend the enhanced subsidies while adding new limits on who can receive them. The proposal would also create the option, in the second year, of a new health savings account that President Donald Trump and Republicans prefer.

Under the deal being discussed, the ACA open enrollment period would be extended to March 1 of this year to allow people more time to figure out their coverage plans after the disruption.

Still, Republicans and Democrats say they have not completed the plan, and the two sides have yet to agree if there should be new limits on whether states can use separate funds for abortion coverage.

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced outlines of a plan he wants Congress to consider that would. It would, among other things, redirect ACA subsidies into health savings accounts that go directly to consumers. Democrats have largely rebuffed this idea as inadequate for offsetting health costs for most people.

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro contributed from Washington.

FILE - Pages from the U.S. Affordable Care Act health insurance website healthcare.gov are seen on a computer screen in New York, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File)