Armenia joins Ireland and Spain in recognising Palestinian state

Palestinian children sit at the edge of a crater after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Friday (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)

Armenia has said it would recognise a Palestinian state, prompting Israel to summon its ambassador for what its foreign ministry described as a “severe reprimand”.

Three-quarters of the 193 United Nations member nations have recognised a Palestinian state, including Ireland and Spain, although none of the major Western powers has done so.

Palestinians believe the recognitions confer international legitimacy on their struggle, especially as Israel’s war against Hamas, now in its ninth month, faces growing international criticism over the campaign of systematic destruction in Gaza and huge cost in civilian lives.

Also on Friday, the head of a major hospital in north Gaza said his staff have seen some 250 children suffering from malnutrition, with numbers rising daily due to acute food shortages.

Palestinians face widespread hunger as the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, which is now totally dependent on aid.

Meanwhile, Israel’s pledge to guard a new aid route into southern Gaza has fallen flat, as the UN and international aid organisations say a breakdown in law and order has made that route unusable.

On Friday the Israeli military said two soldiers were killed in combat in central Gaza, while three were severely injured.

One soldier killed was the son of the one the first Israeli Olympic medalists, according to the country’s Olympic Committee.

Omer Smadga, whose death was announced by the army, was the son of Oren Smadga, the winner of a bronze medal in judo at the 1992 Summer Olympics. The army did not provide further details about the circumstances of his death.

Israel’s Olympic Committee said they “bowed their heads in deep pain” with the Olympic medalist and coach, who helped train the current Israeli Olympic judo team. The committee did not say whether or not Mr Smadga would travel to Paris with the judo team.

Mr Smadga’s success, along with Yael Arad, who also won a silver medal in judo at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, helped propel the sport in Israel.

Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,100 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Israel launched the war after Hamas’s October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.