MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/. Russia urges Israel to immediately stop hostilities in Lebanon in order to avoid major consequences for the region and resort to political and diplomatic means of resolving the conflict, Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov told Rossiya-24 television.

"Amid the developments, we call on Israel to immediately stop hostilities and move toward resolving the situation peacefully and politically. Otherwise, consequences will be absolutely serious for every regional player," the diplomat warned.

Viktorov stressed that Russia condemns the recent killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah Shia movement, in what he said was a terrorist attack. The elimination of Nasrallah indicates that the Jewish state is not seeking to end the conflict or put the situation back on the political and diplomatic track, the diplomat said.

Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah escalated further after a wave of wireless communications device explosions rocked Lebanon on September 17 and 18. The Lebanese group blamed the blasts on Israel. While the Jewish state has not commented outright on the developments, it announced intensifying its military operation in the North.

On September 23, Israel launched a massive airstrike as part of Operation Northern Arrows against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The stated goal is to create a safe environment to return dozens of thousands of locals who have been evacuated from border areas in northern Israel. Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on September 27.