Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday that recognising the State of Palestine before it is established could be counterproductive.

Two takeaways The surprise announcement tells us two things. Firstly, that Macron feels this is the time to act. Leaders from France, the UK and Germany are due to speak Friday to seek urgent action over the new lows of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

France has announced its intention to become the first member of the Group of Seven to recognize Palestine as a state. Ireland, Norway and Spain have already done so, breaking from a consensus within Western Europe and the US that the Palestinians should achieve statehood through negotiations with Israel.

Germany is not planning to recognise a Palestinian state in the short term and said its priority now is to make "long-overdue progress" towards a two-state solution, a German government spokesperson said on Friday.

More than a third of MPs have signed a letter to Sir Keir Starmer calling for the UK to recognise Palestinian statehood. Some 220 MPs from nine political parties have backed the call, including more than 100 from Labour, arguing that UK recognition would be a "powerful symbolic message" and a vital step toward a two-state solution.

There are 147 UN member states out of 193 that recognise the state of Palestine - but the UK is not one of them

Three quarters of UN members recognise a state of Palestine, with major power France set to join them in September following an announcement Thursday by its President Emmanuel Macron.Other member states such as Poland,