UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on October 28 expressed surprise at the unprecedented increase in the intensity of shelling in the Gaza Strip and called for a ceasefire.
“I was encouraged by what appeared to be growing consensus among the international community, including countries supporting Israel, on the need for at least a humanitarian pause in order to facilitate the release of hostages in Gaza, the evacuation of third-country nationals, and an increase in humanitarian aid supplies. . Unfortunately, I was instead struck by the unprecedented increase in shelling and its devastating effect, which undermines the achievement of humanitarian goals,” the statement said.
In addition, Guterres called for the release of hostages without conditions, as well as for the delivery of humanitarian aid that can meet the needs of Gazans.
Earlier that day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the start of the second stage of the war, the goal of which is to destroy the Palestinian Hamas movement and free the hostages. Meeting on the same day with the relatives of the hostages, he emphasized that work in this direction is being carried out and people do not even fully imagine its scale.
At the same time, as political scientist Andrei Koshkin noted in an interview with Izvestia, the United States is dissuading Israel from conducting a ground operation in Gaza, advising it to carry out targeted strikes on the enclave and conduct raids by special forces. According to the political scientist, special raids using armored vehicles are currently being expanded. According to the Israeli side, this is not a large-scale land operation.
On October 28, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia, after the start of Israel’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip, is calling for a restart of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to implement the two-state formula approved by the United Nations (UN).
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, when the Hamas movement subjected Israeli territory to massive rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and also invaded border areas in the south of the country. That same day, Israel began retaliating against targets in the Gaza Strip.
According to the latest data, 5.4 thousand people were injured by Israel, more than 1.4 thousand were killed. Among Palestinians, the number of victims increased to 7.7 thousand, and over 19.7 thousand were injured.
The Palestinians intend to return the borders between the two countries that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War, with a possible exchange of territories. Palestine wants to create its own state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and make East Jerusalem its capital. Israel refuses these terms.
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