Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, signed a declaration Tuesday condemning for the first time Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and calling on the Palestinian terror group to release all the hostages it is holding, disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Strip.

Seventeen countries, plus the 22-member Arab League and the entire European Union, threw their weight behind a seven-page text — obtained by The Times of Israel — agreed at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

The “New York Declaration” sets out a phased plan to end the nearly eight-decade conflict and the ongoing war in Gaza. The plan would culminate with an independent, demilitarized Palestine living side by side peacefully with Israel, and their eventual integration into the wider Middle East region.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution and has rejected the meeting on both nationalistic and security grounds. Israel’s close ally, the United States, is also boycotting, calling the meeting “unproductive and ill-timed.”

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon late Tuesday sharply criticized the some 125 countries participating in the conference, saying “there are those in the world who fight terrorists and extremist forces and then there are those who turn a blind eye to them or resort to appeasement.”

The conference, which was postponed from June and downgraded from world leaders to ministers, for the first time established eight high-level working groups to examine and make proposals on wide-ranging topics related to a two-state solution.

“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” said the declaration.

It followed a call Monday by the Palestinian Authority delegation at the United Nations for both Israel and Hamas to leave Gaza, allowing the PA to administer the coastal territory.

The text also condemned the deadly Hamas-led October 7 assault on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage — of whom 50 are still held, most of them not alive — and which sparked the war in Gaza. It marks a first condemnation by virtually all Arab nations of the attack.

It also condemned Israeli attacks in Gaza that killed civilians, calling on Jerusalem to abandon many of its policies throughout the war and beyond, including its limiting of humanitarian aid to the Strip, its military rule and construction of settlements in the West Bank, its failure to prevent settler violence against Palestinians, and its alleged alteration of status quos in Jerusalem.

The declaration also called for the possible deployment of foreign forces to stabilize Gaza after the end of hostilities.

It urged an end to Israel’s ban of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, UNRWA, while reiterating the Palestinian “right of return” to places in Israel they left or were expelled from surrounding the 1948 creation of the State of Israel — a notion ruled out by successive Israeli governments which contend this would undermine its existence as a Jewish state.

The text also urged the rehabilitation of the Palestinian economy, as well as the removal of inciting and hateful material from the Palestinian Authority school curriculum — a demand also directed at Israel.

France, which co-chaired the conference with Saudi Arabia, called the declaration “both historic and unprecedented,” calling on UN member countries to support the declaration, which outlines “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” toward implementing the two-state solution — which is strongly rejected by the current Israeli government.

“For the first time, Arab countries and those in the Middle East condemn Hamas, condemn October 7, call for the disarmament of Hamas, call for its exclusion from Palestinian governance, and clearly express their intention to normalize relations with Israel in the future,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

However, while the declaration included general pledges for “full regional integration” and “tangible steps in promoting mutual recognition, peaceful coexistence, and cooperation among all States in the region,” it did not include an explicit intent by the signatories to establish full diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

The declaration, spearheaded by France and Saudi Arabia, was signed by the Arab League, the EU, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Norway and Senegal.

“We call on you to support this document before the end of the 79th session of the General Assembly by contacting the missions of Saudi Arabia and France in New York,” Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud told the conference on Tuesday. The 80th UN General Assembly is due to start in September.

The first step outlined in the declaration is to end the 22-month war between Israel and Hamas.

“Following the ceasefire, a transitional administrative committee must be immediately established to operate in Gaza under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority,” it reads.

The declaration supports the deployment of a temporary international stabilization mission, mandated by the UN Security Council, and welcomes “the readiness expressed by some member states to contribute troops.”

It calls on Israel’s leadership to “issue a clear public commitment to the Two-State Solution, including a sovereign, and viable Palestinian State, to immediately end violence and incitement against Palestinians, [and] to halt all settlement, land grabs and annexation activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem.”

The declaration commits to adopting restrictive measures against violent extremist settlers and those who support illegal settlements, and adopting targeted measures “against entities and individuals acting against the principle of the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, through violence or acts of terrorism, and in breach of international law.”

It also describes regional integration and independent Palestinian statehood as “intertwined objectives.”

“Only by ending the war in Gaza, releasing all hostages, ending occupation, rejecting violence and terror, realizing an independent, sovereign, and democratic Palestinian State, ending the occupation of all Arab territories and providing solid security guarantees for Israel and Palestine, can normal relations and coexistence among the region’s peoples and States be achieved,” it reads.

The declaration urges countries to recognize the state of Palestine, calling this “an essential and indispensable component of the achievement of the two-state solution.” Without naming Israel but clearly referring to it, the document says “illegal unilateral actions are posing an existential threat to the realization of the independent state of Palestine.”

French President Emmanuel Macron announced ahead of the meeting that his country will recognize the state of Palestine at the General Assembly’s meeting of world leaders in late September.

The document was issued on the second day of the conference in New York, at which Britain announced it would recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel halts fighting in Gaza and commits to a peace process that ends with a two-state solution. Planned for two days, the meeting was extended into Wednesday because representatives of about 50 countries have not spoken.

For decades, most UN members have supported a two-state solution with Israel and a future Palestinian state existing side-by-side.

But after almost 22 months of war in Gaza, the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Israeli officials declaring designs to annex parts of Gaza and the West Bank, many countries fear that a Palestinian state could become geographically impossible.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the meeting Monday: “The two-state solution is farther than ever before.”

A separate one-page statement titled the “New York Call” was circulated by France, but the language was considered too strong, especially for Arab nations. It was only approved by 15 Western nations, including six that have recognized a Palestinian state and nine others: Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Portugal and San Marino.

The statement, issued late Tuesday, says the 15 countries have recognized, “expressed or express the willingness or the positive consideration… to recognize the state of Palestine, as an essential step towards the two-state solution, and invite all countries that have not done so to join this call.”

Israel, under the current government led by Netanyahu, has long rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state, and has refused to entertain the possibility of the PA playing any role in the future governance of Gaza.

But it has offered few details of what it envisions as an alternative to the PA in postwar Gaza, beyond advocating for what it insists would be the voluntary mass migration of its population.

Israel’s offensive against Hamas has killed over 60,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and terror operatives.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told international journalists that Israel would not give in to the “distorted campaign of international pressure” to end the war in Gaza and force a two-state solution on Israel.

“Establishing a Palestinian state today is establishing a Hamas state. A jihadist state,” said Sa’ar. “It ain’t gonna happen.”

Michael Bachner, Jacob Magid and Lazar Berman contributed to this report.