France and other countries prepared to recognise a Palestinian state as the UN's centrepiece diplomatic week gets under way, following a group of Western governments in endorsing statehood and sparking Israel's wrath.
The meeting in New York today marks the beginning of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.
Recognition by Britain, Canada, Australia and Portugal yesterday of a Palestinian state piled pressure on Israel as it intensifies its war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands, devastated the enclave and drawn vocal rebukes from its allies.
President Emmanuel Macron has indicated France will follow suit today as he prepares to convene a meeting with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman and dozens of world leaders on the two-state solution.
"They want a nation, they want a state, and we should not push them towards Hamas," Mr Macron told CBS News's "Face the Nation" Sunday, adding that the move would help isolate the armed group.
However, not all European powers will follow suit.
Italy said such a move could be "counterproductive", while Germany said it could undermine efforts to reach a negotiated two-state solution with Israel.
More than 140 world leaders will descend on New York this week for the annual United Nations General Assembly summit, which will be dominated by the question of the future of the Palestinians.
Israel and the United States will boycott the summit, Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon, said, describing the event as a "circus".
One world leader who will miss the gathering is Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president who Washington denied a visa to attend, along with his officials.
That earned a rebuke from the General Assembly, which will be the focus of world leaders' speeches and the inevitable protest walkouts this week.
The assembly voted 145 to five to exceptionally allow Mr Abbas to speak via video link.
The US has repeatedly rejected Mr Abbas's Palestinian Authority as a partner for peace.
The humanitarian catastrophe ravaging the small Palestinian territory will top the agenda.
UN chief warns against succumbing to Israeli intimidation
Some diplomats fear Israeli reprisals over the Western push to recognize a Palestinian state in order to kickstart talks on the two-state solution.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Sunday his position that there would be no Palestinian state and vowed to accelerate the creation of new settlements.
Two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, went further, calling for the annexation of the West Bank.
Annexation could backfire and alienate key countries like the United Arab Emirates, a global oil power and trade hub with wide diplomatic clout across the Middle East.
The United Arab Emirates, the most prominent of the Arab states that normalised ties with Israel under the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020, has said such a move would undermine the spirit of the agreement.
"That is why we came on record saying that annexation is a red line for my Government because it strikes at the very heart of what the Abraham Accords were meant to achieve," Lana Nusseibeh, minister of state at the UAE foreign affairs ministry, told the BBC.
Israeli annexation and occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal under international law, as outlined in an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice from July 2024.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday, "we should not feel intimidated by the risk of retaliation".
"With or without doing what we are doing, these actions would go on and at least there is a chance to mobilize international community to put pressure for them not to happen," he said.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed 65,062 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to health officials in the territory, figures the UN considers reliable.
Large parts of major cities have been completely destroyed and around 90% of two million Palestinians have been displaced.
Global hunger monitor IPC determined this month that an entirely man-made famine is currently taking place in Gaza, while UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the famine was the direct result of Israeli government policies.
The world's biggest academic association of genocide scholars passed a resolution saying the legal criteria have been met to establish Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
The current stage of the war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, abducting 251 people and killing 1,200, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies.
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