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Kremlin Warns of Danger of Regional Escalation After Israel Violence 

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the Sousi mosque in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the Sousi mosque in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. (AFP)
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Kremlin Warns of Danger of Regional Escalation After Israel Violence 

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the Sousi mosque in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the Sousi mosque in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. (AFP)

The Kremlin expressed deep concern on Monday about recent events in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, saying the situation could escalate into a wider conflict in the Middle East. 

Israeli troops were still battling Hamas gunmen on Monday, more than two days after the fighters burst across the fence from Gaza on a deadly rampage. The army said it would soon go on the offensive after the biggest mobilization in Israeli history. 

"We are extremely concerned," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular news briefing. 

"This situation is potentially fraught with the danger of spillover, and therefore, of course, it is a subject of our special concern these days." 

Russia, which has relationships with Arab countries, Iran and Hamas as well as with Israel, has repeatedly urged both Palestinians and Israelis to cease violence and has blamed the West for blocking the Middle East Quartet. 

Moscow has said that a proper negotiation is necessary to provide for the creation of an independent Palestinian state within the borders of 1967 with a capital in East Jerusalem. 

"We believe that it is necessary to bring the situation to a peaceful path as soon as possible because the continuation of such a round of violence is fraught with further escalation and the expansion of this conflict," Peskov said. 

At talks in Moscow, Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that he agreed about the need for the violence to stop but said such events would continue as long as the Palestinian problem remain unresolved. 

Lavrov said the flare-up in violence had again demonstrated that the status quo in the region was no longer viable. He called for an end to the violence but also said it was necessary to understand why the Palestinian problem remained unresolved. 

"We completely reject violence, but on both sides," said Aboul Gheit. 

"We demand the creation of political prospects and a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," he added. 

Peskov said Russia's embassy had no information yet on how many Russian citizens in Israel might have been hurt or killed there. He said Russia was in contact with the Palestinians to find out if any Russians had been injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza. 

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Arab World

Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 17 in Gaza as Ground Troops Enter Palestinian Territory’s North

A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising above destroyed buildings in the southern part of the Palestinian territory on April 3, 2025. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising above destroyed buildings in the southern part of the Palestinian territory on April 3, 2025. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
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Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 17 in Gaza as Ground Troops Enter Palestinian Territory’s North

A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising above destroyed buildings in the southern part of the Palestinian territory on April 3, 2025. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising above destroyed buildings in the southern part of the Palestinian territory on April 3, 2025. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

Israeli strikes killed more than a dozen people in the Gaza Strip early Friday, as Israel sent more ground troops into the Palestinian territory to ramp up its offensive against Hamas.

At least 17 people, some from the same family, were killed after an airstrike hit the southern city of Khan Younis, according to hospital staff. Hours later, people were still searching through the rubble, looking for survivors.

The attack came a day after Israeli strikes killed at least 100 Palestinians. Hundreds more have died in the past two weeks, as Israel has intensified operations, intended to pressure Hamas to release remaining hostages it took during its attack on Israel in October 2023. On Friday, Israel said it had begun ground activity in northern Gaza, in order to expand its security zone.

Israel’s military had issued sweeping evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza before expected ground operations. The UN humanitarian office said around 280,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel ended the ceasefire with Hamas last month.

In recent days, Israel has vowed to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor across it.

To pressure Hamas, Israel has imposed a monthlong blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime. Israel said earlier this week that enough food had entered Gaza during a six-week truce to sustain the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians for a long time.

Hamas says it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout from Gaza. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory.

The predawn strike on Friday hit a three-story building. In addition to the dead, the attack wounded at least 16 people from the same family. Associated Press reporters saw bodies being carried out in blankets, while others searched for people trapped under the rubble and collected charred remains.

“We don’t know how to collect them and how to bury them. We don’t know whose remains these are. They were burned and dismembered,” said Ismail Al-Aqqad, whose brother died in the strike, as well as his brother’s family.

On Thursday, more than 30 bodies, including women and children, were taken to hospitals in and around Khan Younis, according to hospital staff.

Israel said Friday that it had killed a top Hamas commander in a strike in Lebanon’s coastal city of Sidon. Israel said that Hassan Farhat was a commander of Hamas’ western area in Lebanon and that he was responsible for numerous attacks against Israel, including one in February 2024, which killed an Israeli soldier and injured others.

In Israel’s renewed offensive, troops have expanded the buffer zone, retaking the eastern section of the Netzarim corridor and partially disconnecting northern and southern Gaza.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, known as ACLED, reported there were over 300 airstrike events during 10 days at the end of March — nearly 10 times the number in February.

The war began when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals. Israel rescued eight living hostages and has recovered dozens of bodies.

More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as part of Israel's offensive, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. The ministry says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 fighters, without providing evidence.

The war has left most of Gaza in ruins, and at its height displaced around 90% of the population.