UNITED NATIONS, July 17. /TASS/. Putting an end to bloodshed in the Gaza Strip will create prerequisites for settling not just the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but other crises in the Middle East as well, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"The end of violence in Gaza and the West Bank may enable not only a search for a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also help to deal with other hotbeds of tension in the vast region of the Near East and the Middle East, in accordance with related Security Council resolutions, rather than with someone’s geopolitical ambitions or rules, which the West is trying to introduce instead of the UN Charter," Lavrov said, speaking at a UN Security Council debate on the situation in the Middle East.

The top Russian diplomat added that Russia supports participation of pan-Arab and pan-Islamic organizations in defending the rights of the Palestinian people.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank.