Ireland, Spain, Norway announce recognition of Palestinian state, angering Israel

DUBLIN/OSLO/MADRID (Reuters) -Ireland, Spain and Norway announced on Wednesday that they would recognise a Palestinian state on May 28, prompting an angry response from Israel which said this amounted to a "reward for terrorism" and recalled its ambassadors from the three capitals.

Dublin, Madrid and Oslo painted the decision as a move aimed at accelerating efforts to secure a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza.

They urged other countries to follow suit although the United States, Israel's main ally, stood by its position that a Palestinian state should be realised through direct negotiations and not "unilateral recognition".

"We hope that our recognition and our reasons contribute to other western countries following this path, because the more we are, the more strength we will have to impose a ceasefire, to achieve the release of the hostages held by Hamas, to relaunch the political process that can lead to a peace agreement," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told parliament.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said the only possible political solution between Israelis and Palestinians was "two states living side by side in peace and security".

Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said he did not expect the recognition to stop the war in Gaza, but it was "a key component" for an Arab-led peace initiative.

Ireland's Prime Minister Simon Harris told a Dublin press conference that Ireland remained unequivocal in recognising Israel's right to exist "securely and in peace with its neighbours", and called for all hostages in Gaza to be freed.

The decision infuriated Israel, which says recognising a Palestinian state amounts to rewarding Hamas militants for the Oct. 7 attack that triggered Israel's offensive against the Palestinian militant group in Gaza.

"The intention of several European countries to recognize a Palestinian state is a reward for terrorism," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

"This would be a terrorist state. It would try to carry out the October 7 massacre again and again - and that, we shall not agree to," he said.

"Rewarding terrorism will not bring peace and neither will it stop us from defeating Hamas."

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the decision would carry "severe consequences", and ordered the immediate return of the Israeli ambassadors from the three countries for consultations.

PALESTINIANS WELCOME STATEHOOD ANNOUNCEMENT

The decision by the three European countries was welcomed by the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli occupied West Bank, and by Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since driving the PA out of the enclave in 2007.

About 144 of the 193 member-states of the United Nations recognise Palestine as a state, including most of the global south, Russia, China and India. But only a handful of the 27 European Union members have done so, mostly former Communist countries as well as Sweden and Cyprus.

Britain, Australia and EU members Malta and Slovenia have indicated in recent months that they could soon follow suit.

Norway, which is not an EU member, was the host of the Oslo peace process some 30 years ago that was intended to lead to a Palestinian state on territory captured by Israel in a 1967 war, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. The last negotiations collapsed a decade ago.

Netanyahu has rejected a sovereign Palestinian state, despite the so-called "two-state solution" remaining the U.S. policy objective. Washington, however, opposes recognising Palestine without an agreement reached at negotiations.

President Joe Biden "is a strong supporter of a two-state solution and has been throughout his career," a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said. "He believes a Palestinian state should be realised through direct negotiations between the parties, not through unilateral recognition."

Germany said it was a matter that required further dialogue, while France said conditions had not yet been met.

Last month, Washington vetoed recognising Palestine as a state at the United Nations, where the Palestinians now have observer status.

The move by the three European countries was the latest example of Israel's increasing international isolation, both over the civilian casualties resulting from its tactics in the Gaza war, as well as its over longstanding policies such as building Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

Jan Egeland, who was part of the Norwegian diplomatic team that helped broker the Oslo Peace Accords in the 1990s, said the announcement by the European trio, though "symbolic", was a message to Israel that the occupation of Palestinian territories had to end.

Alon Liel, a former director general of Israel's foreign ministry and a critic of Netanyahu's government, told Reuters by phone from Tel Aviv that the move by Spain, Ireland and Norway could have an important impact on Israeli public opinion.

Equalising the status of Israel and Palestine in the international sphere, was "a nightmare for the current Israeli leadership", he said. The three European countries' action represented "the start of the recognition by the countries that Israel cares about, that are a role model for Israel".

Israel launched its war in Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas in which fighters killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's operations in the enclave have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries, Inti Landauro, Nerijus Adomaitis, Gwladys Fouche, Emma Pinedo and Stephanie Van Den Berg; Writing by Sharon Singleton and Timothy Heritage; Editing by Peter Graff, Alexandra Hudson, Philippa Fletcher)