MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. Palestine and Israel should halt their military operations at the same time and start talks, Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Abdel Hafiz Nofal told TASS.

"Of course. We are saying that this war needs to be stopped. Hamas is ready to return the people it took hostage: They are Europeans, Americans. Help is needed for the Gaza Strip: health care, medicine and equipment. And then we can negotiate," he said, when asked whether both sides of the conflict could stop hostilities at the same time.

"We think it would be better if Israel stopped the war. Because it's the civilians who will suffer the most," the diplomat said.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7. Hamas regards the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and has started delivering strikes on that area and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.