MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is playing politics by refusing to condemn Israeli strikes on civilian targets in the Gaza Strip, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said.

"The political motivation behind the [UN] secretary general’s decision was clear to everyone amid the Israeli army’s ruthless and indiscriminate strikes on Gaza’s residential areas, which have already killed thousands of children. Still, the secretary general is in no hurry to label Israel as a violator of rules and blacklist it," Nebenzya pointed out, addressing a meeting of the Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament) commission looking into the Kiev regime’s crimes against minors, which was dedicated to World Children's Day.

The Russian envoy also said the International Criminal Court’s move to issue arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their alleged involvement in the deportation of Ukrainian children was shameful. "I wonder if we will ever see this so-called court issue a warrant against the Israeli prime minister who authorized the massacre in Gaza? Well, no one is deporting children from there; they are just being killed in air and artillery strikes, which, by the way, involve US-made weapons," Nebenzya noted.