STORY: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday (September 23) recognizing the state of Palestine does not amount to forgetting the October 2023 Hamas attack, with the French leader making his comments as he sat next to President Donald Trump in a bilateral meeting.

Trump has condemned moves by Western powers and U.S. allies, including France, to recognize a Palestinian state, saying such steps would reward "horrible atrocities" by Hamas militants.

President Donald Trump told the United Nations on Tuesday that he condemned moves by Western powers to recognize a Palestinian state, as the United States appeared increasingly isolated in its staunch support of ally Israel.

Israel has drawn global condemnation over its military conduct in Gaza, which has caused major destruction and where more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to local health authorities. A global hunger monitor says part of the territory is suffering from famine.

France, Britain, Canada, Australia and Portugal are among the countries that have recognized a Palestinian state in the last few days.

Their moves were borne out of frustration with Israel over its offensive and intended to promote a two-state solution, but have angered Israel and its close ally the United States.

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VIDEO SHOWS: U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP AND FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON MEETING AT UNITED NATIONS/ SOUNDBITES FROM TRUMP AND MACRON/

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: RESENDING TO CORRECT SOURCE TO AGENCY POOL FROM UNTV.

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SHOWS: UNITED NATIONS (SEPTEMBER 23, 2025) (AGENCY POOL - Access all)

1. U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, AND FRENCH PRESIDENT, EMMANUEL MACRON, SEATED DURING MEETING AT UNITED NATIONS

2. WHITE FLASH

3. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, ANSWERING IF HE THINKS THE RECOGNITION OF PALESTINE IS A GIFT TO HAMAS:

“Well, I think it honors Hamas, and you can't do that because of October 7th. You just can't do that. But we want our hostages back and we don't want them back in, you know, ones and twos and take the next two years to do it. We were the ones that got the hostages back. And I always said, I told Steve (Witkoff), I told Marco (Rubio). I was always saying the last hostages are going to be the toughest ones. But you can't honor them by doing anything like you suggest. All you can do is say, ‘We want our hostages back and we want, we want the war to end’. We're going to want it to end.”

4. WHITE FLASH

5. (SOUNDBITE)(English) FRENCH PRESIDENT, EMMANUEL MACRON, ON COUNTRIES RECOGNIZING PALESTINIAN STATE:

"It's just a big change. Nobody, nobody, President Trump is totally, right. Nobody forgets the 7th of October. I went there a few days after, taking families in my hands. And it's, we experienced altogether this horrific attacks. And by the way, we lost a lot of French people in this terrorist attacks. But after almost two years of war, what is the result? Once again, they killed the top leaders of Hamas. It works. This is a great achievement. But at the same time, you have as many Hamas fighters as you had the first day. So, it doesn't work to dismantle Hamas. This is not the right it's the right way to proceed.”

6. WHITE FLASH

7. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

“And we are going to get a solution and it's going to be a solution hopefully, that's good for everybody, but it's time to stop. We're going to have that very important meeting. I think the meeting we have coming up in the next hour is going to be one of the most important meetings that we'll have here. And we've had some important meetings. We've had some some great meetings. And I understand where you are and where other people are, too. And we just have to get this solved. We have to get the hostages back. We want to get the war over. That's very important. We're going to end the war, get the hostages back, and we want them all back. We don't want to have one and then we'll give another two in about three months from now. We've been doing that for a long time. And in all fairness, we've gotten a lot of hostages back. But you have 20 hostages, and you have probably 38 bodies, dead bodies. And the people that I see and I speak to Israeli families, I was speaking to American families before, but we got them back. But I speak to Israeli families and they want their son who died. They want their dead son back as much as though he were alive."

8. WHITE FLASH

9. TRUMP AND MACRON SEATED