BISHKEK (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza would result in a level of civilian casualties that would be “absolutely unacceptable”.
Putin was speaking after Israel’s military called for all civilians of Gaza City – more than 1 million people – to relocate south within 24 hours, as it amassed tanks ahead of an expected ground invasion in response to a devastating weekend attack by the Islamist militant group Hamas.
Putin, whose own military has wrought devastation in Ukraine and killed thousands of civilians in nearly 20 months of war, said that using heavy weaponry in residential areas was “fraught with serious consequences for all sides”.
“And most importantly, the civilian casualties will be absolutely unacceptable. Now the main thing is to stop the bloodshed,” he said, speaking at a summit in Kyrgyzstan with other countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.
Putin said, however, that Israel had the right to defend itself after being subjected to “an attack unprecedented in its cruelty”.
He called for collective efforts to secure an early ceasefire and stabilise the situation on the ground.
“Russia is ready to coordinate with all constructively minded partners,” Putin said.
He said negotiations should be directed towards a two-state solution of the Middle East conflict in which Palestinians would get their own state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Putin repeated previous criticism of the United States, saying the current tragedy was the outcome of the failure of U.S. policy in the Middle East.
Russia has longstanding ties to both Israel and the Palestinians, including Hamas, but its relations with Israel have come under strain since the start of the Ukraine war.
On Thursday, Moscow urged Israel to agree to a ceasefire to allow food and medicine into Gaza and said it was unacceptable that the “indiscriminate” bombing of the small, blockaded coastal territory was causing so many civilian casualties.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said a deputy minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, met the Lebanese ambassador to Moscow on Friday to discuss the crisis.
It said their conversation emphasised “the inadmissibility of the spread of armed confrontation to Lebanon and other states in the region, the danger of a growing humanitarian crisis and a new massive influx of Palestinian refugees”.
(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Mark Trevelyan and Alexander Marrow; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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