News - World: Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya has called for an immediate end to the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, as the Israeli regime continues its deadly bombing campaign in the besieged enclave.

Nebenzya made the appeal during the General Assembly special session on Palestine on Thursday, stressing that the bloodshed must be stopped in order to prevent the ongoing crisis from spreading to the entire.

“First of all, it is necessary to stop the bloodshed and to prevent the crisis from engulfing the entire region. Otherwise, the conflict will never be stopped,” he said.

Nebenzya also demanded that the mediators be allowed to work on a diplomatic solution, including the release of hostages.

“One will have to walk down this path sooner or later; the only question is how many innocent people will die in the meantime,” he said.

The Russian envoy said Israel is an occupying regime and therefore it does not have the right to defend itself in the current conflict as it claims.

On Tuesday, Nebenzya blamed the United States for the ongoing atrocities committed by Israel against Palestinians, after Washington opposed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an urgent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

The envoy also slammed Western countries that abstained at the vote on Russia-proposed draft resolutions that called for a ceasefire.

A week earlier, Nebenzya said Moscow has for years been warning about the soaring tensions in West Asia and that the ongoing crisis in the region results from longstanding “destructive” policies of the United States.

Israel has been heavily bombing Gaza since October 7 when the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched a surprise operation in the occupied territories in response to the Israeli regime’s intensified crimes against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The aggression has so far killed 8,800 Palestinians and left more than 23,000 wounded.

Tel Aviv has also blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal strip into a humanitarian crisis.

Source: Press TV