The issue of Palestinian statehood is expected to dominate the UN General Assembly this week, but the US State Department has blocked Palestinian officials from attending.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials had their US visas denied or revoked by the State Department at the end of last month.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused them of “undermining the prospects for peace” and seeking “the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state”.

The decision highlights the distance between the US and several of its allies, which have formally recognised Palestinian statehood recently or announced their intention to do so.

It was an unusual move from the US, as the country is generally expected to facilitate travel for officials of all nations wishing to visit the UN headquarters in New York.

Abbas’s office at the time said the decision “stands in clear contradiction to international law”. Israel, meanwhile, welcomed the move.

It’s unclear whether the US decision complies with the UN Headquarters Agreement, which says foreign officials’ attendance at the UN should not be impeded “irrespective of the relations” between their respective governments and the US.

The UN has since voted to allow Abbas to virtually address this week’s annual gathering of world leaders via video.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says a “fuel shortage crisis” could shut down the Gaza Strip’s remaining functioning hospitals this week.

“Hospitals are only a few days away from shutting down due to fuel shortages,” it says in a statement.

The ministry has issued an urgent appeal to “all concerned parties” asking them to “intervene to ensure the reinforcement of fuel reserves in hospitals to avoid a catastrophe”.

Earlier, we heard from a British doctor working in Gaza who says his facility is low on supplies, and several nations called for Israel to reopen a medical corridor to transfer patients for treatment in the West Bank.

Palestinian state recognition changes little on the groundpublished at 08:49 BST

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

Palestine is a state that does and does not exist.

It has a large degree of international recognition,diplomatic missions abroad and teams that compete in sporting competitions,including the Olympics.

But due to the Palestinians’ long-running dispute withIsrael, it has no internationally agreed boundaries, no capital and no army.Due to Israel’s military occupation in the West Bank, the Palestinianauthority, set up in the wake of peace agreements in the 1990s, is not in fullcontrol of its land or people. Gaza, where Israel is also the occupying power,is in the midst of a devastating war.

Given its status as a kind of quasi-state, recognition isinevitably somewhat symbolic. It will represent a strong moral and politicalstatement but change little on the ground.

But the symbolism is strong. As the former UK foreignsecretary David Lammy pointed out during a speech at the UN in July:”Britain bears a special burden of responsibility to support the two-statesolution.”

The phrase refers to the creation of a Palestinian statein the West Bank and Gaza Strip, broadly along the lines that existed prior tothe 1967 Arab-Israeli war, with East Jerusalem – occupied by Israel since thatwar – as its capital.

But international efforts to bring about a two-statesolution have come to nothing and Israel’s colonisation of large parts of theWest Bank, illegal under international law, has turned the concept into alargely empty slogan.

A British doctor who has worked in other war zones says nothing has prepared him for the devastation he is seeing in Gaza.

Prof Martin Griffiths is based at a facility south of Gaza City, which has seen a “significant influx” of patients arriving from the besieged metropolis.

“I’ve worked in austere environments. I’ve been in South Sudan. This is an order of magnitude – if not two – worse,” he tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“Nothing I’ve ever seen or heard has prepared me for the level of devastation and infrastructure loss that is occurring in Gaza,” he says.

Griffiths says his morning will begin at 04:00 when he is woken up by nearby bombing. His day is then “punctuated by seeing a litany of malnourished, starving, ill people with chronic injuries” who need complex treatment.

“We’re seeing wounds and injuries that have not been attended to for days and weeks,” he says, adding this is “squeezing our already critically under pressure system”.

His facility is low on antibiotics, pain relief medicine and wound dressings – and much of its equipment is “on its last legs”, he adds.

“People are being squeezed and kettled further and further south and that’s becoming really apparent in our numbers,” he says.

Griffiths adds that “lots and lots of sick children” are arriving at the facility, who are all desperate, hungry and “very, very scared”.

US President Donald Trump will hold a meeting with officials from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan to discuss the situation in Gaza on Tuesday afternoon.

It comes days before the US president will host Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 29 September.

As a reminder, Trump will address the UN’s General Assembly later.

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

The Trump administration has never made any secret of its opposition to recognition.

In fact, it’s clear that the US position has hardened into outright opposition to the very concept of Palestinian independence.

In June, the current US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he thought the US no longer supported the creation of a Palestinian state.

More recently, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that Hamas would “feel more emboldened” by the international push to recognise Palestine.

His words, during a joint news conference with Netanyahu on 15 September, echoed the Israeli argument that recognition is a “reward for terrorism”, following the devastating Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.

Rubio also says the US has warned those advocating recognition that it’s likely to provoke Israel into annexing the West Bank.

“We told them that it would lead to these sorts of reciprocal actions and that it would make a ceasefire [in Gaza] harder,” he told reporters at the beginning of September.

Dozens of countries, including Canada, France and Germany, have called for Israel to reopen the medical corridor between Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The move would allow patients from Gaza to travel to the occupied territory for treatment.

The group of nations has offered to send financial aid, medical staff or equipment to assist the process, in a joint statement released by Canada.

“We furthermore urge Israel to lift restrictions on deliveries of medicine and medical equipment to Gaza,” the statement says.

It also urges Israel to “urgently and fully enable the UN and other humanitarian partners to do their life-saving work in Gaza” and to ensure medical personnel in the territory are “respected and protected”.

The statement is signed by ministers from 24 countries and the EU’s equality commissioner. The US and the UK are not among the signatories.

Monday’s summit at the United Nations focused on plans for a two-state solution to end the conflict in Gaza.

But what exactly do they mean by a two-state solution?

• It’s an internationally backed plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians
• It proposes an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. It would exist alongside Israel

What do both sides think of it?

• Israel rejects a two-state solution. It says any final settlement must be the result of negotiations with the Palestinians, and statehood should not be a precondition
• The Palestinian Authority – set up in the wake of peace agreements in the 1990s – backs a two-state solution but Hamas does not because it is opposed to the existence of Israel
• Hamas says that it could accept an interim Palestinian state based on 1967 de facto borders, without officially recognising Israel, if refugees were given the right to return

A UN meeting on a possible two-state solution ahead of the General Assembly tookplace in New York yesterday. Here’s what happened:

• France’s President Emmanuel Macron said thatFrance will join the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal in formally recognisinga Palestinian state
• The French leader also called for the release ofIsraeli hostages held by Hamas and an end to the war in Gaza. He told the UNthat “nothing justifies the ongoing war” in Gaza
• UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres also warned Israel not torespond with an annexation of the West Bank, suggesting that “therelentless expansion of settlements” in the region must stop
• Joining the conference remotely, Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas called for Hamas to surrender its weapons as he looked ahead to a future forGaza that, he said, would not include Hamas
• Ahead of the meeting Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassadorto the UN, spoke to reporters in New York. He said a two-state solution wastaken “off the table” after the 7 October attack and calls thisweek’s talks at the UN a “charade”
• Israel and its closest ally the US did not attendthe meeting. Both are among a shrinking minority of UN members who do notrecognise a Palestinian state, and they have condemned announcements to recognisea Palestinian state
• Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saidrecognition gives “a huge reward to terrorism”, and that a Palestinian state “willnot happen”

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem

Locals say Israeli artillery shelling and attacks by quadcopter drones are driving people from their homes in Gaza City.

Israel has also been using armoured vehicles laden with explosives, which are detonated remotely, to blow up blocks of housing.

The Israeli army now has three armoured and infantry divisions in Gaza City – which it sees as a last bastion of Hamas.

Witnesses say that tanks have advanced into the city centre from the north and south.

The Hamas-run health ministry says bombardments close to al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital and a specialised eye hospital have forced them to evacuate patients and shut down.

A Jordanian field hospital also closed and relocated to the south of the strip.

Several countries have formally recognised Palestinian statehood over the past two days as Israel continues its ongoing assault on Gaza City.

Tanks and armoured vehicles have been seen in the city – once home to hundreds of thousands of people – where Israel’s army has destroyed large blocks of housing and forced residents to abandon their homes.

The bombardment continues as US President Donald Trump prepares to address the UN General Assembly in New York later today, where world leaders have gathered for the organisation’s 80th annual meeting.

Trump did not attend a pre-assembly conference on a two-state solution to the Israel-Gaza conflict. France, which co-hosted the event with Saudi Arabia, formally recognised a Palestinian state at the event, following similar announcements from the UK, Canada and Australia on Sunday.

The US has criticised the move as unhelpful to ending the conflict, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said “there will be no Palestinian state”.

Trump is expected to meet leaders from the Middle East in a separate meeting at the UN after his address, which is expected at 09:50 local time (14:50 BST).

Stay with us for all the latest from the UN in New York and on the ground in Gaza.