Western countries are showing double standards in their treatment of the conflicts in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, Russian Deputy Envoy to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy told Sputnik.
"Our Western colleagues were crying wolf in many cases in Ukraine, and where the situation was, to put it mildly, much more questionable and when there were many more nuances. They do not even dare to call a spade a spade when it comes to Israel's actions," Polyanskiy said.
The United States, in particular, does not want to hear anything resembling a call for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and resists any action by the UN Security Council that would "jeopardize" Israel's ground operation in the Gaza Strip, Polyanskiy added.
On October 7, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched a surprise large-scale rocket attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, breaching the border and killing and taking captives in nearby Israeli military sites and communities. The movement said its operation, Al-Aqsa Flood, was in response to Israeli provocations and occupation of Palestinian territories.
Israel launched retaliatory strikes and ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million people, cutting off supplies of water, food and fuel. On October 27, Israel launched a large-scale ground incursion into Gaza, ostensibly to eliminate Hamas fighters and rescue hostages.
The escalation of the conflict has resulted in the deaths of some 1,400 people in Israel and nearly 11,200, including at least 4,600 children, in Gaza, and has raised the risk of a wider regional conflagration amid fears that Iran or the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah could enter the fray. The UN and other human rights groups warned of a possible genocide in Gaza.
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