MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. The West does not condemn Israel's violent methods in handling the situation in the Gaza Strip, but it reproached Russia after the terrorist attacks in Beslan in 2004 and the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the program Great Game on Channel One.

"When hostages were taken in school in Beslan and when hostages were taken inside a theater on Dubrovka street during the Nord-Ost musical, and when our special services by virtue of special operations were preparing measures to free the hostages, I remember how loudly all Western media, citing some human rights activists in our country were loudly warning against the use of force in the operation, because, they argued, hostages would suffer. I remember that very well. And then there followed loud lamentations and condemnations when, unfortunately, some of the hostages died in the operations to free them. But I do not see anything like that in the position of the West now," he said.

As it was previously reported, more than 19,000 people were killed during the military operation of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip and due to an upsurge in clashes in the West Bank in these Palestinian regions. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 70% of the victims of Israeli attacks were women and teenagers. Among the dead there were 130 employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).