UN, January 24. /TASS/. Another round of escalation of the Palestine-Israeli conflict has already dangerously metastasized in the region with the US’ pernicious influence, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at an open debate of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the Middle East.
"The inability of the [UN Security] Council to take comprehensive measures leads to the fact that the current escalation of the conflict in Palestine has metastasized across the region, with the pernicious influence of the United States and its allies, whose presence in the Middle East, same as in other parts of the Eurasian continent, creates more and more unacceptable risks for global security," he said.
The situation in the Middle East escalated sharply on October 7 of last year after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged surprise incursions from Gaza into borderline Israeli communities, killing residents of Israeli kibbutzim and taking more than 240 people as hostages, including children, women and the elderly. The radicals described the attack as a response to the aggressive actions of the Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel announced a complete blockade of Gaza and launched retaliatory strikes and a ground military operation against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave as well as strikes on parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported in the West Bank.