By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia condemns Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, as well as Tel Aviv’s move to blockade fuel and food supplies to the Gaza Strip, a top Russian diplomat said on Friday.
“Moscow has growing concerns as regards the Gaza Strip situation,” Mikhail Kamynin, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, said.
Israel cut off virtually all shipments into Gaza three weeks ago, following a surge in rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on southern Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert subsequently warned that life would not be “pleasant or comfortable” for people in the enclave if attacks continued.
Kamynin also said that “it was absolutely unacceptable that innocent people should as a result of the actions of terrorists or security forces,” adding that such moves could only cause a further deterioration of the situation in the region.
“This is the road to nowhere,” he said.
Earlier this week Palestinian militants fired more than 30 rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot and other communities bordering Hamas-controlled Gaza, wounding at least six Israeli civilians.
More than 230,000 Israelis live within range of Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, and since the hard-line Islamic Hamas seized power in June of the enclave last year more than 4,200 rockets and mortar rounds have been fired at Israel’s southern cities and towns.
The diplomat urged the parties in the conflict to search for “political resolutions, including bilateral cease-fire.”
“This is the only way to overcome dangerous tensions and to maintain a chance of reaching a firm and long-standing Palestinian-Israeli settlement,” Kamynin said.