MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. Iran is all for the humanitarian pause that Israel and Hamas have agreed to, but would feel better about a complete end to fighting, Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said on Wednesday.

"The most important thing at the moment is for everyone to make efforts to prolong the ceasefire," Jalali said in an interview with Russia’s Rossiya-24 television channel. "We welcome any type of ceasefire and we consider it a positive development, but the ceasefire must move towards becoming permanent to avoid bloodshed starting again tomorrow."

The head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Moscow recalled previously made statements by the Israeli authorities about the need to completely eradicate Hamas, adding that, in his opinion, this is impossible.

"Let’s suppose Hamas is destroyed. But this nation, which today witnesses murders and crimes, will be silent regarding Israel tomorrow? When a man loses his whole life, his family, little children, who lose their fathers, their family, they all become people of Hamas in 10-15 years. That is why this is erroneous," Jalali continued.

"A ceasefire is the first step, then providing humanitarian aid and fuel, and after that other issues must be considered, namely how to rebuild Gaza with all the destruction there and then how to settle the same issue in other regions," the Iranian ambassador added.

On November 22, the Palestinian radical movement Hamas announced reaching an agreement with Israel on a four-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, mediated by Qatar and Egypt. The deal would see the release of 50 Israeli women and children, aged under 19, from the Palestinian enclave in exchange for the release of 150 Palestinian women, children and teenagers under 19 years of age from Israeli prisons.

The ceasefire came into force in the Gaza Strip at 7:00 a.m. local time (5:00 a.m. GMT) on November 24, when the first group of hostages was freed. Initially, the deal envisaged pausing hostilities for an extra day in exchange for the release of every additional ten hostages.

On November 27, Qatari Foreign Ministry Spokesman Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari said that Israel and Hamas, with the help of mediators, reached an agreement to extend the humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip by two days.

Taher al-Nunu, spokesman for Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, told TASS that the new deal with Israel would be based on the same terms, i.e. three Palestinian prisoners would be released in exchange for every Israeli hostage freed by Hamas. The agreement initially provided for the possibility to extend the humanitarian pause for one day if an additional group of ten hostages is released.

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.