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Valleta: Malta has announced that it will formally recognise the State of Palestine during the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September.

Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela shared the announcement in a post on Facebook on Tuesday, July 29.

“Our position expresses our commitment to efforts aimed at achieving lasting peace in the Middle East,” Abela wrote in a post on Facebook.

The decision was also confirmed by Malta’s Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Christopher Cutajar, during a summit on Palestinian statehood co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia in New York on Tuesday.

Malta’s declaration follows similar moves by the British and French governments, reflecting growing international momentum in support of Palestinian statehood.

Malta has long supported the Palestinian cause and the two-state solution as the basis for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As of now, 147 of the 193 United Nations member states have recognised Palestine as a sovereign state. In 2024 alone, Armenia, Slovenia, Ireland, Norway, Spain, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Barbados extended formal recognition.

The renewed global push for recognition comes amid the ongoing war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023. The assault left 1,200 people dead and around 250 taken hostage. In retaliation, Israel launched a large-scale military operation in Gaza.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 60,000 people—including civilians and combatants—have been killed in the conflict so far.