UN Conference Backs Hamas Disarmament, 2-State Solution

High-level representatives at a U.N. conference on July 29 issued a declaration calling for terror group Hamas to disarm and for the international community to support a long-term resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict by implementing a two-state solution.

According to copies of the document obtained by The Times of Israel, the “New York Declaration” states that conference co-chairs France and Saudi Arabia, along with the European Union, the Arab League, and 15 countries that led the working groups, agreed “to take collective action to end the war in Gaza” and “achieve a just, peaceful, and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the two-state solution.”

The declaration expressly condemned the Oct. 7, 2023, attack across southern Israel, in which Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.

It also condemned the Israeli government’s conduct in the ensuing conflict in the Gaza Strip, blaming Israel for attacks on civilians, widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, and worsening humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s civilian population.

The declaration calls for the Palestinian Authority to take charge of law enforcement and security across the Palestinian territories, and for Hamas to hand over its arms to the Palestinian Authority, “in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Nöel Barrot, speaking with the French newspaper La Tribune on July 29, noted the significance of the 22-nation Arab League’s involvement in the conference and subsequent declaration.

“At this conference, the Arab countries will, for the first time, condemn Hamas and call for its disarmament, which will make its definitive isolation official,” the French official said.

Barrot also touted the conference for renewing international interest in realizing a Palestinian state.

Barrot’s co-chair, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said the conference was a “historic stage” to end the conflict and “settle the international atmosphere towards a two-state solution.”

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would formally recognize Palestinian statehood when the United Nations General Assembly convenes in September.

The UK was among the co-chairs of the conference working groups.

On July 29, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the United Kingdom would also recognize a Palestinian state in September “unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza and commits to a long term sustainable peace, including through allowing the UN to restart without delay the supply of humanitarian support to the people of Gaza to end starvation, agreeing to a ceasefire, and making clear there will be no annexations in the West Bank.”

Speaking at the U.N. conference on July 29, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy listed off successive U.N. resolutions since 1947.

“Countless times this Assembly and the Security Council has proclaimed that there must be a two‑state resolution,” Lammy said. “Resolution after resolution. Resolution 181. Resolution 242. Resolution 446. Resolution 1515. Resolution 2334. These are not numbers on a page. But the conviction of a frustrated world.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on July 29, urged against a push for a two-state solution at this time.

“I am not in that camp because if you do that, you really are rewarding Hamas,” he said.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry also said Starmer’s intention to recognize a Palestinian state rewards Hamas and undermines ongoing efforts to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza.

Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire agreement in U.S. President Joe Biden’s final days in office. Biden said the truce was intended as a three-stage process that would eventually end the Gaza conflict.

The parties upheld the cease-fire through the first phase of the framework, but it collapsed in March amid disagreements over the next steps.

Israeli negotiators supported a proposal to extend the phase-one conditions. Hamas negotiators pushed to move on to phase two, which would have required the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza in exchange for the return of all living hostages still held by Hamas.

U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff initially planned to attend a new round of peace talks with Hamas earlier this month, but he pulled out and said Hamas showed “a lack of desire to reach a cease-fire in Gaza.”

Although the Trump administration has condemned Hamas’s negotiating tactics and urged against other countries pushing for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the president called on Israel to prioritize getting food to the people of Gaza this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed back on claims of a worsening humanitarian situation in the embattled territory.

“Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza,” Netanyahu said on July 27. “What a bald-faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.”