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Proper humanitarian assistance to Gaza impossible amid hostilities — Russian diplomat

"We are tired to repeat over and over again - amid the US-backed Israeli military operation, which has been going on for more than six months already, adequate assistance to the enclave’s population is simply impossible," Vasily Nebenzya said

UNITED NATIONS, April 25. /TASS/. It will be impossible to properly ensure humanitarian deliveries to the Gaza Strip unless a ceasefire is reached there, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said.

"We are tired to repeat over and over again - amid the US-backed Israeli military operation, which has been going on for more than six months already, adequate assistance to the enclave’s population is simply impossible. It is absolutely obvious," he said.

"Humanitarian personnel are armless people. They cannot stand against an army. It is inhumanly to expect them to die in bombardments while the [UN Security] Council is failing to compel Israel to cease combat operations," he said.

According to the Russian diplomat, the proposed mechanism of delivering humanitarian cargoes is "unrealistic amid fierce fighting and mop-up operations."

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.