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Middle East conflict

UNSC visit to Gaza Strip still on agenda — Russian diplomat

"Such a visit cannot be organized now because not all the Security Council members agree with this," Dmitry Polyansky said

UNITED NATIONS, August 20. /TASS/. A visit to the Gaza Strip by United Nations Security Council members is still on the agenda but so far it is impossible to organize it, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said.

"This is quite a lasting matter and not only we have been saying that a visit to the Gaza Strip is necessary. This visit is necessary not only as such. First, a consolidated position of all of its members and accord on the modality of the trip are needed," he said. "Such a visit cannot be organized now because not all the Security Council members agree with this. And, naturally, close cooperation with the host party is needed to organize such visits. Israel must give security guarantees, as must the Palestinian Authority. But, as far as I understand, there are problems with this as well. However, such a visit is on the agenda but its organization is problematic."

The Russian diplomat stressed that "the overwhelming majority of the UN Security Council members" are interested in such a visit.

Security Council members made a trip to the border with the Gaza Strip at the end of last year. Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said after it that the Security Council members had seen back then that there were no problems with humanitarian cargoes for the Palestinian enclave but the problem was that due to Israel’s bureaucracy humanitarian cargoes reached Gaza in minimal volumes.

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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Foreign policy Israel

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