Amid a flurry of recent global headlines declaring an all-out famine in the Gaza Strip, the leaders of France, Britain and Canada, as well as some other countries, declared their intentions to formally recognize a Palestinian state as a way of ending the nearly two-year war. 

Yet, the announcements — a direct response to global headlines and shocking photographs of allegedly starving children — may become hollow statements after the Israeli government on Friday said it would expand the military operation in Gaza as the only way to defeat Hamas, the designated Palestinian terror group whose Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel sparked the devastating war, and restore peace.

Recognition of a Palestinian state by a growing number of states could come as soon as next month’s United Nations General Assembly. Yet with Hamas still present in Gaza and still holding at least 50 hostages, and with the other Palestinian leadership, the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority, weak and corrupt, will that recognition undermine efforts to reach both a short- and long-term solution to the decades-old intractable conflict?

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at a leadership meeting in Ramallah in the West Bank  April 23, 2025.  (Reuters/Mohammed Torokman)

Among some Palestinians, too, the idea of statehood, while welcomed, feels far out of reach. 

“Practically speaking, I can’t see this will happen anytime soon. It has to happen through long-term negotiations,” said Huda Abu Arqoub, a Palestinian peace-building activist, referring to the idea of a Palestinian state coming to life.

“For Palestinians watching what is happening in Gaza, something inside us has died. And with that kind of despair, we just don’t have the luxury right now to think of the day after or of a two-state solution.

“Once this war is out of the picture, maybe we can breathe, maybe we can regroup, maybe we will be open to having other solutions rather than just the Oslo-based solution,” said Abu Arqoub, who acts as an advisor on peace to the European Union and some Arab states, including Saudi Arabia.

Instead of an international community “just taking sides,” she added, “there must be a transitional period for Palestinians to regain some sort of trust in the system, in the two-state solution, and to give us a choice whether we want to be part of a political entity that runs for elections or not.”