MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS/. The United States now understands that Israel's reaction to the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack carried out by Hamas is disproportionate, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the daily Izvestia.

"Now the United States understands that Israel's response to the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7 last year, which we categorically condemned, is absolutely disproportionate. To put it mildly, it represents the collective punishment of the Palestinian people prohibited by international law, with absolutely deliberate bombings of civilian facilities and indiscriminate use of lethal weapons," he said.

Russia’s top diplomat noted that the Israeli attacks had already killed almost 35,000 Palestinians.

"More than half of them are women and children. Palestinian civilians. And there are already under 80,000 wounded. This is already more than all civilian casualties on both sides in Donbass and now in Ukraine from 2014 to the present moment," Lavrov stressed.

The situation in the Middle East sharply deteriorated after the infiltration of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, accompanied by killings of residents of border settlements and hostage-taking. Israel responded with retaliatory strikes against the Palestinian enclave and parts of Lebanon and Syria. On December 1, the Israeli army accused Hamas of violating the truce that had been in effect since November 24 and announced that it would resume fighting in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian authorities blame the United States for the renewed Israeli aggression.