Burak Bir
23 May 2024•Update: 23 May 2024
LONDON
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris spoke by phone Wednesday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and prospects for lasting peace.
The phone call came after Ireland along with Norway and Spain officially recognized Palestine as an independent state.
"The Taoiseach (prime minister) told the President that he, on behalf of the people of Ireland, was recognizing Palestine to keep the hopes of a two-state peace solution between Israel and Palestine alive," said a Irish government statement.
Abbas told Harris that Ireland's recognition of the state of Palestine was a "beacon of hope" to the Palestinian people and thanked Ireland, Spain and Norway.
During the conversation, the two leaders spoke about hopes for a lasting cease-fire and an end to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, the statement added.
The announcements by the three European countries come as Israel continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
Palestine is already recognized by eight European nations: Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Sweden and the Greek Cypriot administration.
Israel has launched a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack last year by the Palestinian group Hamas that killed nearly 1,200 people.
More than 35,700 Palestinians have since been killed, most of them women and children, and nearly 80,000 others injured.
Eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered it to ensure that its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
