Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories — The Israeli parliament voted Thursday to oppose a Palestinian state as an “existential threat”, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers the army had Hamas “by the throat”.
The vote, which drew swift criticism from the Palestinian leadership and the international community, is largely symbolic but laid down a marker ahead of a planned address by Netanyahu to the US Congress next Wednesday.
The veteran hawk has shown little interest in efforts by the US administration to broker a truce and hostage release deal for Gaza, insisting that “absolute victory” over Hamas is within reach and vowing to ramp up the military pressure.
On the ground in Gaza, the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry reported 54 deaths in 24 hours as Israel kept up its heavy bombardment of recent days.
The resolution passed by Israeli lawmakers in the early hours said a Palestinian state on land occupied by the Israeli army would “perpetuate the Israel-Palestinian conflict and destabilize the region”.
It said “promoting” a Palestinian state “would only encourage Hamas and its supporters” after its October 7 attack on Israel which triggered the Gaza war.
The resolution passed by 68 votes to nine in the 120-member parliament.
The Palestinian Authority accused Israel’s hard-right ruling coalition of “plunging the region into an abyss”.
France expressed “consternation” at the vote, noting that it was “in contradiction” with multiple UN Security resolutions.
– ‘Stake through the heart’
The establishment of a Palestinian state on lands occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 has been the cornerstone of the international community’s efforts to resolve the conflict for decades.
The Oslo Accords of the 1990s, which gave the Palestinian Authority limited autonomy in urban areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, were supposed to lead to negotiations for an independent state.
But UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday that “recent developments are driving a stake through the heart of any prospect for a two-state solution”.
Guterres renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war, saying “the humanitarian situation… is a moral stain on us all”.
All health facilities in southern Gaza have been pushed to “breaking point” by the influx of casualties from Israeli bombardments, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.
AFPTV images showed mourners at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir el-Balah, where several white-shrouded corpses lay on the ground. One man cradled the covered body of a child.
Rescuers confirmed several people had been killed in separate Israeli strikes.
At the hospital, Ahmed Abu Muheisen said one strike had targeted his cousin’s family in the Al-Zuwaida area.
“His children and his wife were martyred and so was he,” Muheisen said.
– ‘By the throat’ –
During more than nine months of war, Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to eradicate Hamas as well as bring home all the hostages.
On Tuesday, he said “we are hurting” Hamas and this is “exactly the time to increase the pressure even more”.
On Wednesday, he told parliament: “We have got them by the throat.”
Far-right members of his governing coalition, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, oppose a truce deal. On Thursday, Ben Gvir said Netanyahu must not make a “surrender” accord with Hamas.
The war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Hamas also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza including 42 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s military assault since has killed at least 38,848 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry.
– ‘Not living’ –
In an address to the European Parliament on Thursday, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen underlined international concern over the civilian death toll in Gaza.
“The people of Gaza cannot bear any more, and humanity cannot bear any more,” she said.
The war has destroyed much of Gaza’s housing and other infrastructure, leaving almost all of the population displaced and short of food and drinking water.
Pax, a Dutch activist group, said in a study released Thursday that “continuous bombing and Israel’s fuel blockade have decimated” Gaza’s outdated waste collection system, threatening water supplies and farm land.
For Umm Nahed Abu Shar, 45, staying in a tent with her family in Deir el-Balah, this means clouds of flies, the stench of sewage and constant illness.
“We are not living,” she said.