NEW YORK  (TIP): The Spanish, Irish and Norwegian governments announced Wednesday, May 22,  that they would recognize a Palestinian state, saying there would be no peace in the Middle East without it. Israel denounced the move as giving aid to its enemy Hamas.

The coordinated announcements are purely symbolic — but not without some power. The leaders of the three countries said they hoped their recognition would press Israel, the Palestinians and the international community toward a two-state solution to the conflict.

“In the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: Two states, living side by side, in peace and security,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said.

In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz ordered the immediate recall of the Israeli ambassadors to Spain, Ireland and Norway. “I am sending a clear message today: Israel will not be complacent against those who undermine its sovereignty and endanger its security.”

The United States government reiterated its position that recognizing a Palestinian state was premature and must be the result of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. “The president is a strong supporter of a two-state solution and has been throughout his career. He believes a Palestinian state should be realized through direct negotiations between the parties, not through unilateral recognition,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.

More than 140 other countries around the world recognize a Palestinian state, but most are outside Europe. Before Wednesday’s announcement, only a few countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Sweden, had formally recognized it.

A broader group of European nations has pressed for a two-state solution, one that includes the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state drawn on the borders as they were in 1967, with Jerusalem as a shared capital.

That long-imagined dream — the goal, too, of generations of U.S. diplomats — has never seemed so far away.

The war is still raging in Gaza, with daily assaults by Israeli forces in the southern city of Rafah. Meanwhile, Hamas militants have shown signs of reorganizing in the north of Gaza and are still firing the occasional rocket into Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed back against the U.S. idea that the Palestinian Authority, which governs part of the West Bank, would play any role in governing postwar Gaza — or any kind of solution to the conflict.

On Tuesday, May 21  night, the Israeli Foreign Ministry released a statement and video on social media warning Ireland that “Recognizing a Palestinian state will lead to more terrorism, instability in the region and jeopardize any prospects for peace.”

“Don’t be a pawn in the hands of Hamas,” the post said, accompanied by a video with images of Hamas militants celebrating their capture of Israeli hostages. Hard-line members of Netanyahu’s government also pushed back. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said in a statement from Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock, “the countries that recognized a Palestinian state this morning want to give a reward to the kidnappers of the female observers and their many supporters in Gaza — we will not allow any surrender that would even include a declaration of a Palestinian state. Hamas must be totally annihilated — not rewarded.”

Israel says 125 hostages remain unaccounted for after being kidnapped by Hamas in the October attacks.

Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said Israel should approve three new settlements in the occupied West Bank, one for each country that recognized a Palestinian state, and cut funding for the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas sparked the most recent war with its assault on Israeli towns, military bases and a music concert near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. Some 1,200 Israelis were killed. Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 people, mostly civilians.

The Palestinian Authority, which could end up ruling a future state, welcomed the recognition, as did its rival Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

Diplomats said having three European nations recognize a Palestinian state together gave the gesture more heft — and diluted the blowback from Israel. The addition of Norway is especially significant, as the country was instrumental in the negotiation of the Oslo accords in 1993, which created the Palestinian Authority.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had been visiting European and Middle Eastern countries to garner support for an announcement, as well as a possible cease-fire in Gaza, his office said.

“We will not let the possibility of the two-state solution, which is the only just and sustainable solution to this terrible conflict, be destroyed by force,” Sánchez told the Spanish parliament to a standing ovation by some lawmakers.

“The time has come to move from words to actions, to tell the millions of innocent Palestinians who are suffering that we are with them, that there is hope … the land and identity of Palestine will continue to exist,” Sánchez said.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris underlined that Ireland unequivocally supports Israel’s right to exist “securely and in peace with its neighbors.” But he also referenced his country’s thirst for independence from Britain in the early 20th century. “From our own history we know what it means: recognition is an act of powerful political and symbolic value,” he said.

“I’m confident that further countries will join us in taking this important step in the coming weeks,” Harris said.

There were reports that Slovenia may also recognize a Palestinian state soon, but on Monday it said it was not ready to do so.

Earlier this month, the General Assembly of the United Nations passed by a resounding majority a resolution in support of Palestinian membership. It also granted new rights to the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, in its current capacity as “a nonmember observer state.” The resolution won 143 votes, with 25 countries abstaining. Nine nations voted against it: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Argentina, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Israel and the United States.

The resolution, offered by the United Arab Emirates, called for the U.N. Security Council — which must rule on Palestinian membership — to “reconsider the matter favorably.”

In April, the United States used its veto in the Security Council to block the Palestinian bid to become a full member of the United Nations.

(Agencies)