Israel-Palestine Escalation
Israel was hit by an unprecedented rocket attack from the Gaza Strip on October 7, with Hamas movement's troops infiltrating border areas. On October 8, the Israeli government announced that it had invoked Article 40 of the Basic Law, which means the country was officially in a state of war.

Russia to Initiate Contacts on Palestinian-Israeli Settlement During Its BRICS Presidency: Putin

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia will initiate contacts on the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict during its upcoming BRICS presidency, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday at the BRICS Extraordinary Joint Meeting on the situation in the Middle East in Gaza.
Sputnik
According to Putin, the death of thousands of people in the Gaza Strip, mass displacement of the local population and the humanitarian crisis there are a cause of concern.

"The death of thousands of people [in the Gaza Strip], mass displacements of civilian population and the humanitarian catastrophe that has broken out cause great concern," Putin said.

The current situation in the area demonstrates that the United States is trying to monopolize mediation efforts in the peace settlement in the region, the Russian president added.

"Participation of colleagues from the Middle East in today's meeting, who have received the invitation to be full members of BRICS this year, is especially important. I want to use the moment to note their efforts on the normalization of the situation, and in particular I mean the peace summit in Egypt and the extraordinary Islamic summit in Saudi Arabia," Putin added.

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The Russian leader stressed that proper humanitarian pauses are required to ensure the safe release of hostages from the Gaza Strip.

"I would like to emphasize that such humanitarian pauses, or better, of course, a full-fledged ceasefire, are necessary to continue efforts to release hostages and evacuate civilians and foreign citizens from the Gaza Strip," Putin said at the BRICS summit.

Due to the sabotage of UN decisions, more than one generation of Palestinians has been brought up with a sense of injustice, Putin added.

"Because of the sabotage of the UN decisions, which clearly provide for the creation and peaceful coexistence of two independent and sovereign states, Israel and Palestine, more than one generation of Palestinians has been brought up in an atmosphere of injustice shown to their people. And the Israelis cannot fully guarantee the security of their state," he said, highlighting that a long-term Palestinian-Israeli truce is the main task at the moment.

The Russian president also commended the urgent convening of the BRICS summit on important international issues, a practice that was introduced by South Africa.

"The new format of emergency online meetings of leaders, proposed by President [of South Africa Cyril] Ramaphosa seems very promising. Moreover, this concerns not only the Middle East settlement, but also other topical issues on the global and regional agenda," Putin told the extraordinary summit.

It is important to prevent the Israel-Palestine conflict from becoming a regional one, Putin said.
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Russia will initiate contacts on the Palestine-Israel settlement during its upcoming chairmanship in BRICS, Putin said.

"We consider it extremely useful to continue the discussion within the framework of BRICS on the further development of the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation. If there are no objections, dear colleagues, then during the upcoming Russian presidency in the association next year, we will initiate possible contacts, including via video link, on this issue," the president said.

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 more than 13,300, including at least 5,600 children, in Gaza.