The specific date has not yet been set because we are consulting with some countries on a joint recognition, the foreign minister told Newstalk radio.

Martins expressed his hope that such action would help secure peace in the region and stressed that the two-state solution is the only way to ensure that Israelis and Palestinians can live ‘side by side in peace’.

He also strongly condemned Tel Aviv’s military operation in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah and urged the U.S. administration of Joe Biden to reconsider its decision to continue supplying arms to Israel.

On April 29, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, spoke of the possibility of recognition of the State of Palestine by the member countries of the European Union (EU) towards the end of May.

Nine EU member states (Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) took this step in 1988, before joining the regional mechanism, and Sweden in 2014.

Since last October 7, Israeli troops have been indiscriminately bombing civilian installations in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a surprise operation by the Palestinian movement Hamas, which killed around 1,200 people and wounded nearly 5,500.

The Zionist attacks have left more than 35,000 people dead, mostly children and women, and some 79,000 injured.

On the 7th of this month, the Israel Defense Forces began a military operation in Rafah city, where there are about 1.5 million Palestinians who were previously forced to leave the northern and central parts of the Gaza Strip.

Several nations around the world are urging Israel and Hamas to agree on a ceasefire and advocate a two-state solution, approved by the UN in 1947, as the only possible way to achieve lasting peace in the region.

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