PHOTO - TASS/Valery Sharifulin

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is dissatisfied with the visit of representatives from the Palestinian Hamas movement to Russia, according to a statement released by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on October 26th.

"Israel considers the invitation of Hamas leaders to Moscow to be an inappropriate step," the statement read.

Earlier that day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that representatives of the Palestinian movement were visiting Moscow. According to a RIA Novosti source, Abu Marzuk, a member of Hamas' political bureau, arrived in the Russian capital.

Zakharova also stated that Russia is striving to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as quickly as possible and is in contact with key players. She emphasized that the conflict has no military solution and can only be resolved through political and diplomatic means, establishing a full-fledged negotiation process based on well-established international law, which should result in the creation of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, coexisting peacefully and securely with Israel.


In addition, on October 26th, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the Russian side had discussed the release of hostages and the evacuation of Russian citizens from the Gaza Strip during a meeting with Hamas in Moscow. According to the ministry, Abu Marzuk, a member of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, is currently in Moscow. Discussions focused on the release of foreign hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not plan to meet with representatives of the Palestinian Hamas movement who are visiting Moscow. According to the press secretary of the Russian president, contacts with Hamas will only be maintained through the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7th, when the Hamas movement launched a massive rocket barrage at Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip and also infiltrated border areas in the southern part of the country. On the same day, Israel launched a retaliatory operation against targets in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians are seeking to restore the borders between the two countries to the lines that existed before the Six-Day War in 1967. Palestine wants to create its own state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and make East Jerusalem its capital. Israel rejects these conditions.

(Izvestia/JAV)