MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. Presidential Special Envoy for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov confirmed Russia’s readiness to continue efforts towards bringing an end to the bloodshed in Gaza at a meeting with Palestinian Ambassador Abdel Hafiz Nofal in Moscow, the Foreign Ministry said.
"The conversation focused on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with an emphasis on the ongoing intensive hostilities and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. The Russian side confirmed its readiness to continue active efforts aimed at ending the bloodshed in Gaza as soon as possible and providing needed humanitarian aid to the residents of the Palestinian enclave," the ministry said.
The Russian side explained "Moscow's unwavering position in support of a just Palestinian-Israeli settlement on the well-known international legal basis stipulating the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, living in peace and security with Israel," the Foreign Ministry added.
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.