MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. Russia believes that Israeli representatives’ remarks about deporting Palestinians from the Gaza Strip are inappropriate and provocative, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing.

"We have said from the beginning that any talk about deporting Palestinians is unacceptable. We consider such provocations from Israeli officials inappropriate," the diplomat pointed out, answering a question about the conference where such statements were voiced.

Zakharova noted that these statements run counter to the international legal basis for a Middle East settlement, and also fuel anti-Arab tendencies in Israeli society as well as infringe on the rights of the enclave’s people. "We hope that Israel’s government will give a relevant assessment to this dangerous rhetoric, as it is really provocative," she 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.