Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday that Australia will recognize a Palestinian state, joining the leaders of France, Britain and Canada in signaling they would do so.

His remarks came after weeks of urging from within his Cabinet and from many in Australia to recognize a Palestinian state and during growing criticism from officials in his government over suffering and starvation in Gaza.

Those commitments included no role for Hamas in a Palestinian government, demilitarization of Gaza and the holding of elections, he said.

Nearly 150 of the 193 members of the United Nations have already recognized Palestinian statehood, most of them decades ago. The United States and other Western powers have held off, saying Palestinian statehood should be part of a final agreement resolving the decades-old Middle East conflict.

France, the United Kingdom, and Canada have also made commitments to recognise Palestinian statehood, with caveats.

Recognition announcements are largely symbolic and are rejected by Israel, and by the United States — the only country with any real leverage over Netanyahu. Israel’s leader said this month that he would not accept Palestinian Authority involvement in a government for Palestine.

A two-state solution would see a state of Palestine created alongside Israel in most or all of the occupied West Bank, the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem, territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war that the Palestinians want for their state.