MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a telephone conversation with President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, discussing additional humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the press service of the Kremlin said in a statement.

"A telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has taken place," the statement reads.

"Amid the continuing military standoff in the zone of the Palestine-Israeli conflict [the leaders of the two countries] focused on steps to provide additional humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip," the press service 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 200 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.