
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong (L) listens to Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as he speaks during a press conference in Canberra on August 11, 2025. AFP
"A two-state solution is humanity's best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza," he told reporters in Canberra.
"Until Israeli and Palestinian statehood is permanent, peace can only be temporary.
"Australia will recognise the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own. We will work with the international community to make this right a reality."
The Israeli on Gaza has revived a global push for Palestinians to be given a state of their own.
According to an AFP tally, at least 145 of the 193 UN members now recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state, including France, Canada and Britain.
"There is a moment of opportunity here, and Australia will work with the international community to seize it," Albanese said.
He said that Australia's decision was predicated on reassurances from the Palestinian Authority that there would be "no role for the terrorists of Hamas in any future Palestinian state".
The Palestinian Authority, however, does not have a presence in Gaza, which has been governed by Hamas for nearly two decades.
International concern is growing about the plight of the more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where the fighting has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of mass starvation.
Albanese further criticised the Israeli government on Monday, saying it continued to defy "international law and deny sufficient aid".
As the global movement to recognise a Palestinian state grows, New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters said his country would carefully consider whether to do the same over the next month.
He added that New Zealand's recognition of a Palestinian state was a "matter of when, not if".
"The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is rightly at the forefront of the global agenda," he said.
Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 61,430 Palestinians.
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