The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has hailed as an “important step” French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris could recognize a Palestinian state in the coming months.

“We welcome the statements made by French President Emmanuel Macron regarding his country’s readiness to recognize the State of Palestine,” said Mahmud Mardawi, a senior Hamas official.

Mardawi called the announcement “an important step that, if implemented, would constitute a positive shift in the international position towards the legitimate national rights of our Palestinian people.”

The Hamas official underlined that France’s move was important because it is a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council.

“France, as a country with political weight and a permanent member of the (UN) Security Council, has the ability to influence the course of fair solutions and push towards ending the occupation and achieving the aspirations of the Palestinian people,” he added.

Mardawi said those aspirations were “freedom, independence and the establishment of their state on their land, with Jerusalem as its capital.”

The French president said on Wednesday that Paris is making plans to recognize a Palestinian state and could do so as early as June.

“We must move toward recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,” Macron told France 5 television. “I’m not doing it for unity, or to please this or that person. I’m doing it because at some point it will be fair.”

France plans to co-host with Saudi Arabia an international conference for the so-called “two-state” solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

‘Step in the right direction’

The Palestinian Authority (PA)’s Foreign Ministry in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah also said France’s recognition of Palestinian statehood “would be a step in the right direction in line with safeguarding the rights of the Palestinian people and the two-state solution.”

The Foreign Ministry called on countries that have not recognized a Palestinian state to do so and support efforts for full Palestinian membership in the UN.

Currently, 147 of the 193 UN member states recognize the state of Palestine.

Israel resumed its campaign of genocide in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce and sent troops back into the blockaded Palestinian region. In the three weeks since, the health ministry in Gaza says Israeli military strikes have killed nearly 1,500 Palestinians and injured over 3,400 others.

More than 50,800 Palestinians have been killed in a brutal Israeli onslaught in Gaza since October 2023, most of them women and children.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.