Moscow is in favor of Israel abandoning attempts to change the status of Jerusalem and immediately cease settlement activities in the occupied territories, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin told RIA Novosti.
“In this regard, we believe that Israel’s attempts to change the geographical, demographic and historical character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem are illegal and invalid,” the source said.
He stressed that Russia reaffirms “its adherence to the international legal framework for a Palestinian-Israeli settlement, which meets the aspirations of the Palestinian people for their own state and Israel’s security requirements.”
Large-scale clashes between Palestinians and Israeli border police fighters erupted in East Jerusalem on Saturday night. The protesters threw stones at the security forces, launched firecrackers, which is why the guards used special means to disperse the crowd. According to the Red Crescent, 205 Palestinians were injured, and the Israeli police reported 17 injured personnel.
After that, the sides began to exchange blows. By the morning of May 12, Palestinian groups fired over a thousand rockets into Israeli territory. Tel Aviv continues to shoot at the Gaza Strip: according to the latest data, 48 people were killed in two days, including 14 children and three women, and more than 300 people were injured. On Israeli territory, seven casualties were reported, more than 200 were injured.
After the 1967 Six Day War, Israel took over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and set up settlements there. Palestine wants to create its own state on these lands (including the Gaza Strip, which has been ruled by the Islamist organization Hamas since 2007) and demands that future borders between sovereign Arab and Israeli states follow the lines that existed before the conflict.
Israel does not agree with this and has already declared Jerusalem its “eternal and indivisible capital”. The peace process has been suspended.
