From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is the Daily.

It's been nearly two years since Hamas carried out its deadly attacks on Israel on October 7th,

and Israel began its bombardment of Gaza.

Since then, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has only worsened,

and Hamas is still holding hostages.

But the images of Palestinian suffering have lately fueled international pressure on Israel to end the war

and pushed Western powers to recognize a Palestinian state.

This culminated last week at the United Nations where a group of world leaders formally

recognized Palestinian statehood, which deepened Israel's isolation. But just a week later,

a new peace plan unveiled by President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

underscored the reality that Palestinian statehood is a long way off.

Today, the optimism and the fury of this moment and what this recognition actually means.

It's Friday, October 3rd.

Jess Chung, you are one of the producers on our show, and last week you spent time on the ground at the UN to document this historic moment in which the question of Palestinian statehood was really front and center.

So talk to us a little bit about what you were there to capture.

Well, over the past two years, the international

community has grown increasingly frustrated with Israel's tactics in the war. And what we've seen

recently is a push by a number of Western countries like the UK, France, Australia, and Canada

to formally recognize the Palestinian state as a way to put pressure on Israel to end the war.

Now, up until this point, over 140 countries had already done this.

But what's interesting about this new group of countries is that they're traditionally Israeli allies.

That infuriates Israel and the U.S. who say what this is going to do is reward Hamas for its terrorism on October 7th.

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