MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has chided the UN Security Council for requesting only one humanitarian pause in the Gaza Strip hostilities at its recent meeting.

"If we talk about the position of the international community, of course, the fact that the Security Council yesterday modestly asked for only one humanitarian pause and failed to support the wording of the UN General Assembly, which called for a humanitarian truce as a step toward a ceasefire, certainly speaks volumes. And above all, it speaks to the position of the United States and its closest allies," he said at a news conference following talks with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto.

"We insist on an immediate end to the bloodshed and an immediate solution to the humanitarian problems that are literally screaming in the Gaza Strip and now also in the West Bank," the Russian minister went on to say. "We categorically condemn terrorism in any of its manifestations, but we are also categorically against countries fighting terrorism with methods that flagrantly violate international humanitarian law."

Lavrov said indiscriminate bombardment of residential neighborhoods, hospitals, kindergartens and other public buildings has claimed the lives of thousands of people, including children.