WASHINGTON

Israel's war against the Gaza Strip is tantamount to "collective punishment," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday as the death toll in the besieged coastal enclave nears 40,000.

Addressing reporters at the UN's New York headquarters, Lavrov condemned the Hamas-led Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel, maintaining the Kremlin has consistently done so since the raid occurred.

But he maintained that Israel's retaliatory war has crossed the line and is now a form of "collective punishment" on the territory's 2.3 million Palestinians.

"When it comes to collective punishment in violation of international humanitarian law, one cannot fight against one form of violation through other violations. It's the same principle here," he said in response to a reporter's question.

More than nine months into Israel's onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins with nearly all of its population in a state of internal displacement amid a crippling blockade on food, clean water and medicine.

The official death toll has surpassed 38,800, with over 89,100 people injured, according to local health authorities. Fears have mounted that the true death toll could be significantly higher.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese paramilitary and political group, has been engaged in a months-long set of escalatory cross-border attacks with Israel in a bid to ramp up pressure on Tel Aviv to agree to a cease-fire.

Lavrov said the group "has been very much restrained in its actions," but said there is an attempt in Israel "to provoke them into a full-blown engagement." Russia, he said, is "doing everything possible to calm tensions."

"Neither Hezbollah, nor the government of Lebanon, nor Iran want a full-blown war, and as a suspicion that some circles in Israel are trying to achieve just that, to provoke a full-blown war, trying to engage the US, trying to make the mind," he said. "I think it's terrible if some groups are trying to prioritize their personal interest rather than the interests of their own nation."

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

Undeterred, Israel has continued its offensive on the city, which had served as a last resort for many of the displaced who have been ordered by Israel to go to a sprawling tent city near the coast. But Israel has repeatedly bombed the al-Mawasi "safe zone," leading to dozens of civilian deaths.