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Middle East conflict

UNSC to hold Russia-requested closed-door meeting on Middle East on May 9

The Security Council will hear a report of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)

UNITED NATIONS, May 7. /TASS/. The United Nations Security Council will hold Russia-initiated closed-door consultations on the Middle East on May 9, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyansky said.

"On May 9, closed consultation on a specific subject will be held at Russia’s request. The Security Council will hear a report of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO). This is the oldest UN peacekeeping mission and the only one in the zone of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Apart from that, according to Polyansky, the Security Council will hold Algeria-requested closed-door consultations on the mass graves in Khan Yunis later on May 7. "The topic is very important. Even the UN secretary general called for an international investigation a week ago. We also insist of this," he noted.

The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) was established in 1949 to supervise implementation of the Israel-Arab Armistice Agreements. UNTSO observers are deployed to southern Lebanon, the Golan Heights, Beirut, Damascus, and Jerusalem.

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.

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