The plight of the Palestinian people cannot be disregarded, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow on Wednesday, a day after his talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani. Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere perceive what the Palestinians have endured for years as a gross injustice that had been “aggravated beyond belief.”
The Russian president said that a Palestinian state should have been created alongside the state of Israel back in 1948 but never was. “The Palestinian problem is in the heart of every person in [the Middle East] and every person practicing Islam,” he told the forum.
His words came amid an ongoing escalation around the Gaza Strip. A new conflict broke out after the Gaza-based Hamas militant group launched a massive attack on Israel, killing more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians. West Jerusalem responded with a massive bombing campaign against Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 800 people, according to the local health officials.
The UN said earlier this week it would launch a probe into war crimes committed by both sides, adding that it already had “clear evidence” suggesting that both Hamas and the Israel Defense Force (IDF) had violated international law.