London (AFP) - Britain, Australia and Canada on Sunday recognised a Palestinian state in a coordinated, historic shift in decades of Western foreign policy, triggering swift anger from Israel.

Portugal was also set to recognise Palestinian statehood later Sunday, with other countries, including France, due to follow Monday at the annual UN General Assembly opening in New York.

Israel has come under huge international pressure over its war against Hamas in Gaza launched in the wake of the October 7, 2023 militant attack, which has sparked a dire humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the statehood moves and vowed “it will not happen. No Palestinian state will be established west of the Jordan River.”

He slammed the move as “absurd” and said it would “endanger” Israel’s existence, later vowing to expand Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu spoke after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain was formally recognising the State of Palestine “to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution”.

The UK and Canada became the first members of the Group of Seven advanced economies to take the step, with Australia following suit.

Three-quarters of UN members now recognise Palestinian statehood, with at least 144 of the 193 member countries having taken the step, according to an AFP tally.

Canada “offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future”, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the move “recognises the legitimate and long held aspirations of the people of Palestine to a state of their own”.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas hailed the recognitions as “an important and necessary step toward achieving a just and lasting peace”.

It is a watershed moment for Palestinians and their ambitions for statehood, with the most powerful Western nations having long argued it should only come as part of a negotiated peace deal with Israel.

Although a largely symbolic move, it puts those countries at odds with the United States and Israel.

US President Donald Trump said last week after talks with Starmer during a state visit to the UK that “one of our few disagreements” was over Palestinian statehood.

And French President Emmanuel Macron insisted in an interview with a US television network that releasing the hostages captured in 2023 would be “a requirement very clearly before opening, for instance, an embassy in Palestine”.

- ‘Special burden’ -

A growing number of longtime Israeli allies have shifted their long-held positions as Israel has intensified its Gaza offensive, which began almost two years ago with Hamas’s 2023 attack.

The Gaza Strip has suffered vast destruction, with a growing international outcry over the besieged coastal territory’s spiralling death toll and a UN-declared famine.

The UK government has come under increasing public pressure to act, with thousands of people rallying every month on the streets. A poll released by YouGov on Friday showed two-thirds of British people aged 18-25 supported Palestinian statehood.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy had said at the United Nations in July that “Britain bears a special burden of responsibility to support the two-state solution”.

The UK was pivotal in laying the groundwork for the creation of the State of Israel through the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

Starmer said on Sunday that Britain was acting “in the face of the growing horror in the Middle East”.

He renewed calls for a ceasefire and again demanded Hamas release its remaining hostages.

Branding Hamas a “brutal terror organisation”, Starmer also confirmed plans to bolster sanctions on the militants, denying recognition was a “reward”.

- Framework for peace -

Hamas’s attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,208 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the UN considers reliable.

Many obstacles remain before statehood, including who would run the territory.

The UK’s foreign ministry said there was a coordinated effort to draw up a framework for peace to “address governance, security, humanitarian access” as well as building a two-state solution.