MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. The United States is doing everything to prevent a vote on Algeria's draft resolution on the situation in Gaza in the UN Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"Now our Algerian colleagues, who took the seat of a non-permanent member of the Security Council in this year’s January, have also prepared a draft resolution on the ceasefire. So far this draft has not been put to a vote, but our American colleagues are doing everything to prevent this document from being brought to a vote in the Security Council," the top diplomat said at the 13th Middle East Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club.

"And, of course, we see the consequences of the current escalation in other parts of the region, including the West Bank, there are also military operations there, there are also casualties. But outside the Palestinian territories, there are also missile and bomb attacks on the territory of Syria and Iraq," Lavrov pointed out.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank.