On the evening of October 17, the al-Ahli Hospital in the centre of Gaza was destroyed in a missile attack. According to the Health Ministry of Palestine, at least 500 people have been killed and over 1,000 have been wounded. The overwhelming majority of the victims were hospital patients and civilians, many of them women and children, who were sheltering in the building.

Moscow is deeply shocked. We express our deep condolences to the families of the victims and the people and government of Palestine.

We again urge the conflicting sides to de-escalate hostilities without delay and to respect international humanitarian law. We reaffirm Russia’s position of principle on the unacceptability of violence against civilians and strikes on medical facilities or any other civilian infrastructure facilities.

We emphasise that it is necessary to consolidate international efforts towards an immediate ceasefire and to open humanitarian corridors in order to give badly needed support to people in Gaza, including deliveries of food, medicines and fuel, to evacuate everyone who wants to leave, and to prevent the looming humanitarian disaster.

We point out that attempts to politicise this issue are unacceptable and irresponsible. We believe that the discussion of the relevant initiatives at the UN Security Council must above all take into account the interests of the people affected by the conflict.

We would like to repeat our advice for Russian citizens to refrain from travelling to Israel and the Palestinian territories.