MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. Russia continues contacts with Israel and Palestine for the release of Russian citizens taken hostage, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in comments on the conflict in the Middle East.

"We continue our contacts. One of the main tasks - if not the main one - is to continue contacts with all interested parties so that the Russian citizens who are still held hostage can be released, and their safety ensured," he said.

"We hope that this will happen. Although contacts are not easy," Peskov stressed.

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.