Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova speaks during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic
Russia has condemned Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip after the IDF struck multiple Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets throughout Friday afternoon and Saturday, releasing a statement by the spokesperson for the minister of foreign affairs on Saturday afternoon.
In the written statement shared on the ministry's website, Russia's spokesperson for the foreign minister Maria Zakharova said that "Moscow is seriously concerned about a new round of armed violence in the zone of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Russia, who have been engaged in what they have dubbed a "special military operation" in Ukraine since February 24 of this year, stated that "another escalation was provoked by Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on August 5, in response to which Palestinian groups launched massive indiscriminate shelling of Israeli territory."
Adding that she was following the unfolding events with "deep concern," Zakharova said that "the resumption of a full-scale military confrontation" would further deteriorate the "already deplorable humanitarian situation in Gaza."
Saying that Moscow called on all parties to show maximum restraint and to work towards a ceasefire, Zakharova added that the country reaffirms its "principled and consistent position, reflected in the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the UN Security Council, in support of a comprehensive and long-term settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in accordance with the two-state principle.
Smoke rises during an Israeli air strike, amid Israel-Gaza fighting, in Gaza City August 6, 2022 (credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS)
Smoke rises during an Israeli air strike, amid Israel-Gaza fighting, in Gaza City August 6, 2022 (credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS)
"It is possible to put an end to cyclical violence only within the framework of the negotiation process, the result of which should be the realization of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people to establish an independent state within the 1967 borders," she concluded.
An attempt to divert attention away from Ukraine war?
Since invading Ukraine earlier this year, Russia has captured and taken control of multiple Ukrainian territories including Luhansk, Donetsk, Mariupol and Kherson. Also once considered Ukrainian territory, The Crimean Peninsula has been under Russian control since it was invaded and annexed by Russia in March 2014.
According to a UN report from July 16, over 5,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since February, many of them children.
Israel's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has repeatedly criticized Russia's actions in Ukraine, and before him, then-prime minister Naftali Bennet authorized multiple shipments of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, although did not explicitly condemn Russia.
In what analysts have suggested is an attempt to divert attention away from their war in Ukraine, Russia has issued multiple condemnations against Israel, the most recent of which being Saturday's statement.
Back in June, Russia circulated a drafted UN Security Council resolution condemning the bombing of the international airport in Damascus, which they blamed on Israel. And, since early July, an ongoing crisis has erupted between the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Russian government, which ordered the organization to cease all operations in the country.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sirens blare across Israeli-occupied territories as resistance vows ‘non-stop’ retaliatory strikes
Sirens warning of incoming rockets fired from the besieged Gaza Strip have sounded in the Israeli-occupied cities of Tel Aviv and Ashkelon, as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement launches a volley of rockets toward Israel following the latter’s onslaught against Gaza.
The Palestinian resistance launched the rockets into the two cities on Saturday, a day after the Israeli military targeted a residential area in the Gaza Strip, killing at least a dozen civilians, including a five-year-old child, and injuring many more.
According to initial reports, some of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile system and others landed in open areas.
There were no immediate reports of casualties and at least three explosions, possibly caused by interceptions, were heard in the city.
In the southern city of Ashkelon, several cars were damaged after a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip directly hit a parking lot.
The municipality said police sappers were safely removing a large piece of shrapnel.
Shortly before, sirens also sounded in Ashkelon, Sderot, and other towns near the border with the Gaza Strip. Initial reports say several projectiles are intercepted.
Rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli-occupied territories, in Gaza City, August 6, 2022. (Photo by AP)
Meanwhile, sirens also sounded in the city of Netivot, some 10 kilometers from the Gaza Strip, and other closer border towns.
There are no immediate reports of casualties or damage in the latest wave of rocket attacks.
On Friday, at least 15 people, including a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad, were killed in an airstrike by Israel on a center affiliated with the resistance movement in the city of Rafah located in the southern part of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Following the strike, the Islamic Jihad fired more than 100 rockets toward the occupied territories. The movement called the retaliatory barrage only an “initial response” to the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza.
Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad Palestinian resistance movement Ziad al-Nakhalah has said the Israeli enemy must expect a "non-stop" confrontation in the wake of the Friday aggression.
There will be no truce following this attack, the Islamic Jihad official added.
Nearly 400 rockets and mortars are estimated to have been fired at Israel since Friday afternoon.
The regime in Tel Aviv continued to target residential areas in Gaza on Saturday. Israeli warplanes struck two residential buildings in Gaza City, displacing the occupants and injuring more than a dozen people.
The latest escalation in Gaza was triggered by Israel’s detention earlier this week in the occupied West Bank of Bassem al-Saadi, a key Islamic Jihad member that the Tel Aviv regime accused of orchestrating a spate of attacks.
Israel said on Saturday it is preparing for its aerial operation in Gaza to last a week, saying there are currently no discussions on a ceasefire with Islamic
