UNITED NATIONS, December 16. /TASS/. Russia calls on the mediators to focus on efforts to find a negotiated solution to the problem of disarming Palestinian groups and withdrawing Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said.

"We call on the mediators to focus on the search for a comprehensive negotiated solution to the problem of disarming Palestinian groups and withdrawing Israeli units from Gaza. In the past two years, the world has been watching in terror attempts to resolve the problem by force. Now it is time for real diplomacy on the ground that requires compromises and silence rather than loud statements," he said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on the Middle East settlement.

According to the Russian diplomat, there is no clarity about which countries are willing to take part in the international stabilization force in Gaza. "We think this is quite an expected situation. It's one thing to send specialists to a peacekeeping mission who will monitor the ceasefire, engage in deconflicting and helping form Palestinian security forces. But it's quite a different thing to deploy units that will be tasked to try to compel Palestinian fighters to surrender arms," he said. "Such a mission risks turning the international stabilization force into a party to the conflict with all the consequences that come with it. And this would amplify dramatically the security risks for foreign contingents that would be deployed there."

On September 29, the White House released US President Donald Trump’s comprehensive plan to resolve the situation in the Gaza Strip. The 20-point document includes, among other measures, the establishment of temporary external administration in the Palestinian enclave and the deployment of international stabilization forces there. On October 9, Israeli and Hamas agreed on the implementation of the first stage of Trump’s peace plan and the ceasefire agreement came into force on October 10.

On November 17, the UN Security Council passed the US-drafted resolution supporting Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, with 13 out of the 15 of its permanent members voting for it and Russia and China abstaining.