MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Calls to ban Israeli athletes from taking part in international tournaments contradict the Olympic principles, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the combined Direct Line Q&A session and year-end press conference.

"Sports is outside of politics, [it] is meant to unite people. <…> Why would that affect athletes? Let them go and compete unrestricted," Putin emphasized.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total siege of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on the Palestinian enclave, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.