French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that France will formally recognize a Palestinian state this September during the United Nations General Assembly.

In a post on X, Macron framed the move as part of a broader effort to fulfill France’s commitment to “a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”

The announcement comes just hours after talks for a ceasefire and hostage deal fell through due to Hamas not acting “in good faith,” according to Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff.

“We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza,” Witkoff wrote. “It is a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way.”

Macron outlined five key priorities: ending the war in Gaza, securing the release of hostages, delivering humanitarian aid to Gazans, demilitarizing Hamas, and rebuilding the Gaza Strip.

Macron wrote that it is “essential to build the State of Palestine, ensure its viability, and enable it, by accepting its demilitarization and fully recognizing Israel, to contribute to the security of all in the Middle East.”

“There is no alternative,” he added.

Macron said his decision followed commitments made to him by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas is currently in his 20th year of what was originally a four-year term.

France is the most influential European country to recognize a Palestinian state, joining more than a dozen others — including Spain, Norway, Ireland, and Sweden. All told, over 140 countries have recognized a Palestinian state.

Israel has strongly opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank and Gaza, and says doing so now would reward the terrorists who murdered over 1,000 Israelis on October 7, 2023.

“Macron’s recognition of a Palestinian state after the October 7th massacre isn’t diplomacy; it’s moral collapse,” Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett posted to X in response. “It rewards mass murder and tells Islamist terrorists: kill Jews, and the world will hand you a state. This shameful decision will be tossed into the dustbin of history.”

There has never been a Palestinian state. Prior to Israeli occupation, Judea and Samaria were occupied by Jordan, and Gaza by Egypt.

Israeli Minister of Finance Betzalel Smotrich said France’s announcement provides a “compelling reason” to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

“I thank President Macron for providing yet another compelling reason to finally apply Israeli sovereignty over the historic regions of Judea and Samaria, and to definitively abandon the failed concept of establishing a Palestinian terrorist state in the heart of the Land of Israel,” he wrote. “This will be our fitting Zionist response to the one-sided pressure and coercive measures led by President Macron and his allies.”

On Wednesday, Israel’s Knesset voted in favor of a declaratory resolution in support of applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley in a vote of 71-13.

“The Knesset affirms that the State of Israel has a natural, historical, and legal right to the entirety of the Land of Israel – the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people,” the resolution reads. “The Knesset calls upon the cabinet of Israel to act promptly to extend Israeli sovereignty, including law, jurisdiction, and administration, over all areas of Jewish communities, in all its forms, in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in Judea and Samaria.