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Only US, Israel against humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza — Russian UN envoy

Vasily Nebenzya also noted that the US for a long time has been "ignoring the Palestinian problem and the Palestinians’ legitimate hopes for their own state"

UNITED NATIONS, December 19. /TASS/. Only Israel and the US are against an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip while global consensus on the issue has already been shaped, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said at a session of the UN Security Council.

"The only country besides Israel being against it, setting itself against the entire international community, is the United States," he said, adding that Washington’s policy in the Middle East had hit a dead end.

The Russian diplomat also noted that the US for a long time has been "ignoring the Palestinian problem and the Palestinians’ legitimate hopes for their own state."

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. On December 1, the IDF accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire and announced renewed fighting in the Gaza Strip. Palestine’s authorities said the US was responsible for Israel’s renewed aggression.