Hamas destruction means destruction of Gaza, civilians: Lavrov
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The Russian Foreign Minister stresses that once the Gaza Strip is destroyed and its population of two million people is expelled, it will bring a catastrophe not just for decades, but for centuries to come.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Pretoria on Jan. 23, 2023 (AFP)
In an interview, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared that it would be impossible to destroy Hamas without destroying Gaza and most of its civilian population.
"It is necessary to stop, it is necessary to announce humanitarian programs to save the population, which has found itself in a blockade: no water, no electricity, no food - there is none of this," Lavrov said.
He stresses that once the Gaza Strip is destroyed and its population of two million people is expelled, it will bring a catastrophe not just for decades, but for centuries to come.
Read next: How the war on Gaza is tilting global power toward Russia, China: WSJ
"We send signals to the Israelis, we have full contacts with them, our ambassador communicates with them regularly, we send signals about the need to seek a peaceful solution and not to complete the announced scorched earth strategy in Gaza," Lavrov noted.
Russia on the side of Palestine
This comes after the representative of the Hamas delegation in Moscow, Abu Hamid, told Kommersant yesterday that the Palestinian Resistance does not intend to release hostages until an agreement to a ceasefire is reached.
According to Abu Hamid, hundreds of citizens and dozens of militants from various Palestinian factions entered the territories occupied in 1948, and after the fall of the Israeli Gaza Division, they captured dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them, stressing that calm is required to ensure that.
Israeli bombing has killed 50 of the prisoners so far, he noted.
A #Hamas delegation met with #Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister today in Moscow pic.twitter.com/ENlKWK1it3
— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) October 26, 2023
On Wednesday, the United Nations Security Council turned down a resolution drafted by the United States concerning the war on Gaza due to Russia and China exercising their veto power against it.
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia was critical of the resolution, describing it as "political" and expressing concerns about the approach taken in its drafting.
Read next: UNSC members preoccupied with national agendas: Russia UN envoy
Nebenzia pointed out that the US delegation had refused other Security Council members the opportunity to consult with their respective capitals and had imposed unrealistic and urgent deadlines.
