Russia Warns Israel It Won't Tolerate More Civilian Casualties in Gaza Conflict

Authored by newsweek.com and submitted by Boardindundee

Amid international pressure, Israel has refused to back down from the conflict with Hamas. Meanwhile, Russia has warned the Jewish State of engaging in further violence that costs civilians' lives.

As reported by the Associated Press, as of Wednesday, about 219 Palestinians have been killed in the current fighting, while Israel has seen 12 casualties. The rising number of deaths and injuries have raised calls from around the world for Israel to mount a "proportionate" response to the attacks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has denied Israel has done anything beyond defending itself and vowed to continue until Hamas is deterred from future violence.

The escalating conflict is of "extreme concern" to the Kremlin, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov urged Israel to carefully consider the actions they take.

"In a frank exchange of opinion on the situation in the Israeli-Palestinian relations, including the one in the Gaza Strip, the Russian side expressed extreme concern over the escalation of tensions and stressed the impermissibility of steps fraught with more civilian casualties," Bogdanov told Alexander Ben Zvi, Israel's ambassador in Moscow, on Wednesday, according to state news agency TASS.

Russia's "very closely monitoring the developments" in the area, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. Peskov urged both parties to be "utterly cautious in their statements" so as to not "add fuel to the fire."

Peskov also said Russia is willing to play host to conversations and was making "initiatives within its powers" to serve as a venue for direct contacts.

Newsweek reached out to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Russia isn't the only country calling for an end to the violence. While the United States wouldn't sign onto a United Nations Security Council statement urging a ceasefire, President Joe Biden publicly backed such a move on Monday.

In a call with Netanyahu on Wednesday, Biden told the prime minister he expected a "significant de-escalation" from Israel "on the path to a ceasefire."

It's unclear if Biden's expectations will be met, as Netanyahu has given no signs he's ready to reduce Israeli efforts in the conflict. In a briefing with foreign ambassadors on Wednesday, Netanyahu said there was no "stopwatch on our hand" of when the conflict will end, and the focus is making sure they "meet the goals of this operation."

Those goals, as Netanyahu has outlined, are to deter Hamas from future attacks and hinder its ability to launch offensives. He criticized Hamas for using civilians in their battles, which he said is contributing to the high death toll.

Netanyahu lauded Israel's attempt to target Hamas with "great precision," and called criticism against the country for the civilian death toll "absurd," "unjust" and "untrue."

While he has no time frame for when the conflict will end, Netanyahu said at Wednesday's meeting that he's hopeful they can "restore quiet" quickly.

cold_rush on May 20th, 2021 at 02:08 UTC »

Stop or else we will attack ukraine...

Mastagon on May 20th, 2021 at 01:38 UTC »

Finally a world leader in human rights weighs in

afunnew on May 19th, 2021 at 23:53 UTC »

The headline is misleading. Here is what what was said

"In a frank exchange of opinion on the situation in the Israeli-Palestinian relations, including the one in the Gaza Strip, the Russian side expressed extreme concern over the escalation of tensions and stressed the impermissibility of steps fraught with more civilian casualties," Bogdanov told Alexander Ben Zvi, Israel's ambassador in Moscow, on Wednesday, according to state news agency TASS.

Russia's "very closely monitoring the developments" in the area, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. Peskov urged both parties to be "utterly cautious in their statements" so as to not "add fuel to the fire."

Edit: Found the original TASS article

https://tass.com/politics/1291417

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. Russia’s special presidential envoy for the Middle East and African Countries, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, has expressed Russia’s extreme concern over the soaring tensions in Palestinian-Israeli relations to Israel’s ambassador in Moscow Alexander Ben Zvi at a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday.

"In a frank exchange of opinion on the situation in the Israeli-Palestinian relations, including the one in the Gaza Strip, the Russian side expressed extreme concern over the escalation of tensions and stressed the impermissibility of steps fraught with more civilian casualties," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a news release.

Bogdanov reaffirmed Moscow’s invariable readiness to provide brokerage services to all parties concerned with the aim of promoting prompt settlement of the conflict at the negotiating table on the well-known international legal basis.