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Moscow urges Israelis, Palestinians to end confrontation at once

According to statistics available toward the end of the day of November 16, the conflict had claimed more than 20 lives on the Palestinian side

MOSCOW, November 17 (Itar-Tass) — Moscow is urging the Israelis and the Palestinians to urgently end military confrontation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday, adding that no Russian citizens have been hurt in the flare-up of hostilities.

“Tensions over Gaza kept escalating over the past few days. They soared to a record-high on November 14, when the leader of HAMAS, Ahmed Jabri, was killed in a raid by Israeli warplanes,” the commentary said. “In retaliation the Palestinian militants in Gaza fired about 400 missiles and artillery shells. Some of them exploded in the suburbs of Tel-Aviv. The Israeli army dealt strikes against hundreds of targets along the perimeter border of and inside Gaza.”

According to statistics available toward the end of the day of November 16, the conflict had claimed more than 20 lives on the Palestinian side and left over 160 injured. Heavy damage was caused to the sector’s infrastructure. In Israel, four people were killed and at least 50 others injured.

Moscow is “deeply worried over the dangerous march of events over Gaza.”

“We believe it is necessary to end the military confrontation, stop the shelling of the Israeli territory and the disproportionate strikes against Gaza, which cause civilian casualties,” the Foreign Ministry said.

“This is required by the interests of ensuring stability and security in the Middle East and North Africa, which became a scene of major internal crises and conflicts of late,” the Foreign Ministry said. “We strongly urge once again all parties concerned to end any armed manifestations, refrain from following the path of escalating violence and restore truce.”

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