The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed concern on Monday in regard to the recent developments in the West Bank involving casualties among peaceful Palestinian demonstrators.
Several hundred Palestinian demonstrators tried to break through the northern border between Gaza and Israel on Sunday marking the 1967 Six-Day War anniversary.
“We express our deep concern in connection with the new surge in the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation… We are particularly concerned that peaceful demonstrators were killed and wounded in the course of events,” the ministry said in a statement.
In another development of events on Sunday, a group of young Palestinian and Syrian demonstrators breached the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights. Israeli servicemen opened fire killing six Arabs, including a child, and wounding at least 100.
The ministry further called in its statement on the sides involved “to show maximum restraint, not to allow the use of force against peaceful citizens and demonstrations, and to imply all efforts to prevent the further escalation of violence.”
The Six-Day war was fought on June 5-10, 1967, between Israel and its Arab neighbors Jordan, Syria and Egypt. The war resulted in Israel’s victory and brought the country control over Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. These territories have since remained the source of tension in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict.
MOSCOW, June 6 (RIA Novosti)