UNITED NATIONS, April 26. /TASS/. Russia is sparing no effort to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman.
"Regrettably, not long ago, we failed to do what we must have done more than 70 years ago and as a result of the United States’ veto, Palestine was not granted the right to vote within the United Nations, let alone the fact that, unlike Israel, it is not a state, he said. "We are doing our best to help resolve this crisis. In all modesty, Russia is steering these processes."
According to the Russian diplomat, unlike many other countries, Russia can "speak openly about what is going on" and "this is highly assesses not only by Arab and Muslim countries but also in the world."
On April 18, the United States vetoed an Algerian draft resolution on admitting Palestine as a full-fledged member of the United Nations. Twelve UN Security Council members, including Russia and China, supported the idea of admitting Palestine while Switzerland and the United Kingdom refrained. The United States voted against the draft.
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 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. 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.
In late November 2023, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. The sides extended the ceasefire several times but on the morning of December 1 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip.