LUXEMBOURG - Recognising a Palestinian state will help keep alive the peace process in the Middle East, Luxembourg’s prime minister told AFP as his country prepares to take the step next week.

Of the United Nations’ 193 member states, 147 already recognise a Palestinian state, but none of the Group of Seven major economies did so until now.

The Luxembourg Grand Duchy is among a raft of nations including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France and the United Kingdom that plan to join their ranks at a UN summit in New York on Sept 22.

“I would like the Israeli and Palestinian peoples to keep hope alive that one day they will be able to live in peace,” Prime Minister Luc Frieden said in an interview.

The recognition will be “a key moment in this process... an important step in a long march towards peace and stability in the region”, said the 62-year-old centre-right leader, who will be in New York to represent his country.

Kicking off Sept 22, Saudi Arabia and France will co-chair UN meetings on the future of the Israeli and Palestinian two-state solution, which aims to see both sides existing alongside one another in peace.

The initiative has gathered momentum amid growing global protests at Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The war was sparked by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 64,964 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

The humanitarian crisis triggered by Israel’s campaign and restrictions on aid have fuelled widespread public anger in Europe and elsewhere.

A United Nations probe has