Zeinab Abu Halib on March 15. Obtained by CNN

A 5-month-old Palestinian baby suffering from severe malnutrition died in her mother’s arms in Gaza Friday, one of the latest victims of a starvation crisis that has generated international outrage but continues to deepen.

The girl — Zeinab Abu Halib — died yesterday as her mother tried to get her to a hospital in southern Gaza.

“Zeinab has been in and out of the hospital for the last three months,” her mother, Israa Abu Halib, told CNN today.

“I had to walk for more than 30 minutes as there is no transportation… The dirt road was so long, the weather was so hot, but I kept walking even though I was hungry and didn’t have water.”

“Suddenly I felt that she stopped moving and breathing; her body became heavier,” Abu Halib said.

Zeinab after she died on Friday. Obtained by CNN

“I don’t know what to say anymore. How many innocent babies like Zeinab should be starved to death so the world wakes up?” she asked.

Zeinab “died from complications of severe malnutrition,” said Dr. Munir al-Boursh, Director General of the Ministry of Health, in a post on X.

“She was left to waste away until she became skin over bones…Over 260,000 children under the age of five in Gaza are suffering from malnutrition,” al-Boursh said.

Correction: A previous version of this post misstated the infant’s age. The child was 5 months old.

MILAN, Italy — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday that recognizing a Palestinian state before it is established could be counterproductive.

“I am very much in favor of the State of Palestine, but I am not in favor of recognizing it prior to establishing it,” Meloni told Italian daily La Repubblica.

“If something that doesn’t exist is recognized on paper, the problem could appear to be solved when it isn’t,” Meloni added.

France’s announced decision to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September drew condemnation from Israel and the United States, amid the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Israel’s warnings to France have ranged from scaling back intelligence sharing to complicating Paris’ regional initiatives — with several ministers urging the annexation of the West Bank.

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France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, will become the first major Western country to recognize a Palestinian state, potentially giving greater momentum to a movement so far dominated by smaller nations that are generally more critical of Israel.

On Friday, Italian Foreign Minister Antoni Tajani said recognition of a Palestinian state must occur simultaneously with recognition of Israel by the new Palestinian entity.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday that recognizing Palestinian statehood should be part of a wider plan for lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.

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Starmer said in a video statement that he was working with allies of the UK to advance a “pathway to peace” in the region and that recognizing a Palestinian state is part of that process. “But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis. This is the way to ensure it is a tool of maximum utility to improve the lives of those who are suffering – which of course, will always be our ultimate goal,” the British premier added.

A German government spokesperson also said on Friday that Berlin was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term, adding that its priority now is to make “long-overdue progress” toward a two-state solution.

Some opponents of countries unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state maintain that the move is merely symbolic when done without cooperation with Israel, adding that a Palestinian state can only be the result of negotiations between both sides of the conflict. But supporters of the move say the current Israeli government is uninterested in such talks or in a two-state solution and that the framework can therefore only be advanced through diplomatic pressure.

At least 142 countries now recognize or plan to recognize Palestinian statehood, according to an AFP tally. Several countries have announced plans to recognize statehood for the Palestinians since the outbreak of the Gaza war, which was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.

Norway, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia all announced recognition following the outbreak of the Gaza conflict, along with several other non-European countries.

The October 7 massacre saw Hamas-led terrorists kill some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnap 251. Of the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, the IDF has confirmed the deaths of 28.

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The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 58,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 456.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Saturday that “now is not the right time” to recognize a Palestinian state, warning that premature recognition could be counterproductive and risk masking unresolved issues.

In an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica, Meloni criticized France’s recent recognition of the State of Palestine, calling it “rushed.”

“I believe that recognizing the State of Palestine, without there being a State of Palestine, could even be counterproductive to the objective. If something that doesn’t exist is recognized on paper, the problem risks appearing solved, when it isn’t,” Meloni said.

She added that she had conveyed this position to the Palestinian Authority, to Macron, and to Italy’s Parliament.

“As someone who is very much in favor of the State of Palestine, I’m not in favor of recognizing it before a process for its constitution begins,” she said.

Meloni’s remarks triggered backlash from opposition figures. Angelo Bonelli, a Green Europe lawmaker, slammed the comments as “serious and unacceptable,” according to Italian news agency ANSA.

“Saying that ‘it’s not the time’ and that it would even be ‘counterproductive,’ while Gaza continues to die of hunger and bombing, is a sign of total political and moral subservience to the executioner Netanyahu and the Israeli right,” Bonelli argued.

“This is not prudence, it is complicity,” he added, urging Italy to follow other European countries that have recognized Palestinian statehood.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 59,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

“I believe that recognizing the state of Palestine, without there being a state of Palestine, could actually be counterproductive to the objective,” the prime minister said.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced this week that France would be the latest European country — and the first in the G7 — to recognize Palestinian statehood. Macron said Paris will make the recognition at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

“The urgency today is to end the war in Gaza and to provide aid to the civilian population,” Macron wrote in a statement posted online. “The French people want peace in the Middle East. It is up to us, the French, together with the Israelis, the Palestinians, and our European and international partners, to demonstrate that it is possible.”

Macron’s announcement was welcomed by Palestinian officials but has been criticized by the United States and Israel, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the decision “rewards terror” following the October 2023 attack by the Hamas militant group on Israel.

Some 147 countries out of the 193 members of the U.N. currently recognize or plan to recognize a Palestinian state. Eleven of the 27 EU member countries have already recognized Palestinian statehood, including Spain, Romania, Sweden, Ireland and Bulgaria.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer has rejected calls to immediately recognize a Palestinian state, while a German government spokesperson said on Friday that Berlin was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term and that its priority is to make “long-overdue progress” toward a two-state solution.

BUDAPEST: Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban threatened on Saturday to torpedo the European Union’s new seven-year budget unless Brussels unlocks all suspended EU funds.

The nationalist leader has for years clashed with Brussels over migration, LGBTQ rights and what critics see as eroding democracy in Hungary. The EU has suspended billions of euros earmarked for Hungary while a rule-of-law dispute drags on.

“The approval of the new seven-year budget requires unanimity and until we get the remaining (frozen) funds, there won’t be a new EU budget either,” Orban said in a speech at a summer university in the Romanian town of Baile Tusnad.

The European Commission has proposed a €2 trillion ($2.35 trillion) EU budget for 2028 to 2034 with emphasis on economic competitiveness and defense.

Orban also criticized the EU for supporting Ukraine and accused Brussels of planning to install a “pro-Ukraine and pro-Brussels government” in Hungary at next year’s vote.

He also accused EU leaders of risking a trade war with US President Donald Trump’s administration that Europe “cannot win.”

“The current leadership of the EU will always be the last to sign deals with the United States and always the worst deals,” Orban added, urging a change in the bloc’s leadership.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet Trump on Sunday in Scotland in search of a trade deal.

Orban, who swept the last four elections, faces a tough new opposition challenger Peter Maygar, whose center-right Tisza party has a firm lead over the ruling Fidesz in most polls at a time of economic stagnation.

Magyar told a rally on Saturday that Hungary must be firmly anchored in the EU and NATO military alliance, and Tisza would bring home all suspended EU funds if it wins in 2026.

“Hungary is an EU member and our relations as allies cannot be built on a political style of putting a spoke in the wheel,” Magyar said. He added that Tisza could not support the EU budget in current form but would be ready for talks on that.

“We need to make a clear and firm decision that our place has been and will be in Europe,” Magyar said, criticizing Orban’s close relations with Russia.