MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. The Israeli side cannot negotiate a settlement with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, since he does not control the Gaza Strip, Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alexander Ben Zvi told reporters.

"They keep telling me that we should sit down at the negotiating table, talk about two states. Let's think about how we will do that," the diplomat said. "I always ask, if I sit down at the negotiating table, then who with? It's a simple question. With whom will I sit down: with Hamas, which wants to destroy me and says so itself, or, for example, with the Palestinians who sit in Ramallah, that is, with the Palestinian Authority, because Hamas does not belong to them, they are adversaries?" he asked.

"Mahmoud Abbas, who is supposed to visit Moscow soon, has no control over Gaza," the ambassador went on to say. "So I will negotiate with him, and then what? We need the one who sits down to talk to be able to fulfill what he promised," the Israeli diplomat explained.

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 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. 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.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Daniel Hagari announced an expansion of Israeli ground operations on October 27.