MOSCOW, February 29. /TASS/. Israel's military operation in the West Bank is becoming no less serious and violent than that in the Gaza Strip, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with representatives of Palestinian political forces.

"The military operation in the West Bank is becoming no less serious and fierce than in Gaza," the top diplomat noted. The text of his statement was uploaded to the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Lavrov stressed that the situation in Gaza is caused by US attempts to monopolize mediation efforts. "The Gaza Strip has been overwhelmed by a wave of violence unprecedented in its scale. In many respects, this was the result of a long stagnation in the Middle East settlement process, caused by the US attempts to monopolize mediation efforts, to stop the activity of the 'quartet' of international mediators (the US, Russia, the EU, the UN) and advance the policy that they deem necessary for themselves," Lavrov pointed out.

The foreign minister reiterated that over the years Russia, as well as a number of Arab countries, including Egypt and Algeria, "were making attempts to provide all Palestinians with an opportunity to meet, remove any misunderstandings and restore unity." "We consider this task important. We give you an opportunity, without limiting each other in terms of time, to try to arrive at common solutions to restore unity on the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization - TASS) platform," Lavrov added.