MINSK, November 23. /TASS/. The leaders of the CSTO member states have exchanged views on the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone and spoke in favor of a ceasefire between the parties, the organization’s Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov said.

"The conflict in the Middle East was not a standalone issue on the agenda of the Collective Security Council, but when key problems of international and regional security were discussed, the heads of state exchanged views on the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation," he said.

"The Collective Security Treaty Organization unequivocally supports a ceasefire in the conflict zone and [supports] the start of a peaceful settlement," Tasmagambetov added.

He noted that the Middle East region has always been a hotbed for conflict. "However, the current confrontation goes beyond all past experience. Indeed, limitless violence, thousands of victims with a huge number of children among them, women, can in no way justify either political or ideological interests," the secretary general added.

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.