Canada plans to recognise the State of Palestine at a meeting of the United Nations in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday, ratcheting up pressure on Israel as starvation spreads in Gaza.

The announcement came after France said last week it would recognise a Palestinian state and a day after Britain said it would recognise the state at September’s UN General Assembly meeting if the fighting in Gaza, part of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, had not stopped by then.

Carney told reporters that the reality on the ground, including starvation of people in Gaza, meant “the prospect of a Palestinian state is literally receding before our eyes.”

“Canada condemns the fact that the Israeli government has allowed a catastrophe to unfold in Gaza,” he said.

Carney said the planned recognition was based in part on repeated assurances from the Palestinian Authority, which represents the State of Palestine at the UN, that it was reforming its governance and is willing to hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas “can play no part.”

The announcements by some of Israel’s closest allies reflect growing international outrage over Israel’s restrictions on food and other aid to Gaza in its war, and the dire humanitarian crisis there.

A global hunger monitor has warned that a worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in the enclave.

The Gaza health ministry reported seven more hunger-related deaths on Wednesday, including a two-year-old girl.

The Israeli military killed at least 50 people within three hours on Wednesday as they tried to get food from UN aid trucks coming into the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel and its closest ally, the US, both rejected Carney’s statements.

“The change in the position of the Canadian government at this time is a reward for Hamas and harms the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of the hostages,” the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made similar comments after the French and British announcements.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said President Donald Trump also sees recognition of the State of Palestine as wrongly “rewarding Hamas.”

The State of Palestine has been a non-member observer state of the UN General Assembly since 2012, recognised by more than three-quarters of the assembly’s 193 member states.

Jonathan Panikoff, former deputy US national intelligence officer on the Middle East, said recognition of Palestine is intended “to increase pressure on Israel to compel it to return to a two-state paradigm.”

But he said Canada’s announcement is “unlikely to be anything more than symbolic and risks undermining their relationship with a longtime ally in Israel.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke with Carney before Canada’s announcement, said the recognition of Palestine will “revive a prospect of peace in the region.”

In Gaza, resident Saed Al Akhras said the recognition of Palestine by major powers marked a “real shift in how Western countries view the Palestinian cause.”

“Enough!” he said. “Palestinians have lived for more than 70 years under killing, destruction and occupation, while the world watches in silence.”

Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza appealed for no recognition of a Palestinian state to come before their loved ones were returned.

“Such recognition is not a step toward peace but rather a clear violation of international law and a dangerous moral and political failure that legitimizes horrific war crimes,” the Hostages Family Forum said.

Netanyahu said this month he wanted peace with Palestinians but described any future independent state as a potential platform to destroy Israel, so control of security must remain with Israel.

His cabinet includes far-right members who openly demand the annexation of all Palestinian land.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday that reestablishing Jewish settlements in Gaza was “closer than ever,” calling Gaza “an inseparable part of the Land of Israel.”