MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. Russian presidential envoy for the Middle East and African countries and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said at a meeting with senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk that Russia wants Hamas to release all hostages immediately, including three Russian nationals, the Russian foreign ministry said.

"The Russian side stressed the need for the immediate release of civilians, including three Russian nationals Andrey Kozlov, Alexander Lobanov, and Alexander Trufanov, who were kidnapped in the October 7, 2023 attacks and have been held by Palestinian groups ever since," it said.

According to the ministry, the meeting paid major attention to the ongoing confrontation in the zone of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, which is nearing a catastrophe.

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 more than 200 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 blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.