MOSCOW

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday that Russia is trying to persuade Israel to abandon its "scorched earth" strategy because "it is impossible to destroy" Hamas without destroying the Gaza Strip with the majority of the civilian population.

In an interview with the Belarusian state news agency Belta, Lavrov said the reason for the current escalation on the Palestinian territories is a direct consequence of the failure to create a Palestinian state.

The minister assessed as "unreal" the prospects of direct Palestinian-Israeli talks.

The Russian top diplomat was "astonished" by the lack of response from the UN Secretariat-General regarding the number of the organization staff killed in the current escalation. He believed "a lot" of UN personnel died, taking into account that hundreds of people worked only in one UN structure, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Lavrov opposed both Hamas actions on Oct. 7 and the Israeli response "damaging innocent people" and called for an immediate cease-fire.

The minister called "disastrous" the approach suggesting that Israel has every right to self-defense by any means in response to Hamas' attacks.

"It is clear that such an approach is also disastrous. If Gaza is destroyed, 2 million residents will be expelled from there as some politicians in Israel and abroad say, then this will create a catastrophe for many decades if not centuries," he warned.

Lavrov urged the warring sides to announce humanitarian programs to save the population trapped in the blockade.

"We have repeatedly told our Israeli colleagues that without the creation of a Palestinian state through negotiations this situation will not calm down. They will live permanently surrounded by unstable Palestinian territories. In the absence of a state, there will always be a threat to Israel from there," he said.

“We maintain full contact with Israel, our ambassador regularly communicates with them. We are sending signals about the need to seek a peaceful solution, and not to complete the announced 'scorched earth' strategy,” he said.

Lavrov criticizes West

In response to accusations of profiting from the escalation in the Gaza Strip as it distracts attention from the situation in Ukraine, Lavrov said: "We are always blamed for everything, including for what is happening in Africa and many other things."

The minister stressed that recent developments in Ukraine and in the Gaza Strip show that the West needs to stop its "experiments" around the world, including in Asia because they only lead to destabilization.

As for Ukraine, he said he has an impression that "the West is even beginning to be a little afraid of what kind of monster it has raised, given that (Ukrainian President) Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his associates are increasingly disobeying (the West's will)."

Lavrov also criticized the West for attempts to infiltrate Central Asia, a remote region with which it does not have common borders.

"No one forbids choosing partners, but when non-regional countries come here with not quite clean intentions, we pay attention to this. We will do everything so that Central Asia does not suffer from such plans," he said.