Moscow seeks to secure the release of the 229 captives in Gaza by working through all its contacts and within that context it also hosted Hamas representatives, Russia’s Embassy in Israel said.
“Russia’s contacts and actions in the Middle East and in international organizations are focused primarily on the immediate release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip,” the Embassy stated.
Moscow is also seeking to evacuate its citizens and to help other countries extricate their nationals from Gaza, the embassy stated.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Hamas delegation had met with representatives of Russia's foreign ministry but not with President Vladimir Putin or Kremlin officials.
"We consider it necessary to continue our contacts with all parties and, of course, we will continue our dialog with Israel," he told reporters.
They spoke out after a Hamas delegation visited Moscow on the same day that Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Baghiri Kani, Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator, was in that city as well. Iran has been a strong military ally of Russia in its war on Ukraine.
Israel has harshly criticized Moscow’s decision to host Hamas, an Iranian proxy group, in light of its October 7 attack on Israel in which over 1,400 people were killed and over 229 people were taken hostage.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry reminded Russia that “Hamas is a terror organization that is worse than ISIS.
“The hands of senior Hamas officials are stained with the blood of over 1400 Israelis who were slaughtered, murdered, executed and burned.
“They are responsible for the kidnapping of over 220 Israelis, including babies, children, women and the elderly,” the Foreign Ministry stated.
“Israel condemns the invitation of senior Hamas officials to Moscow, which is an act of support of terrorism, and legitimizes the atrocities of Hamas terrorists.
“We call on the Russian government to expel the Hamas terrorists immediately,” it added.
The Russian Embassy pushed back, stating that it was not and had supported terror.
“We find absolutely unacceptable any attempts to accuse us of supporting terrorism and thereby distort and erode our fundamental approaches as well as cast doubt on the purposeful work of our country to solve primary humanitarian tasks that meet the interest of the citizens of Russia, Israel, Palestine and other countries.
Moscow, the embassy said, had taken a harsh stand against the Hamas attack and its position on this has been consistent since the October 7 attack.
“We strongly condemn the use of terrorist methods, including the killing of civilians, taking hostage women, the elderly and children, who must be released. We consider unacceptable the manifestation of violence in any form against the civilian population, no matter what side it is on.”
The Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted a member of a Hamas delegation Abu Hamid visiting Moscow that Hamas would not release all the hostage until a ceasefire was in place.
It cited Abu Hamid as saying Hamas needed time to locate all those taken from Israel to Gaza by various Palestinian terrorist organizations in a Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
"They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them," Hamid said.
Kommersant quoted him as saying a calm environment was needed to complete this task. Hamas said on Thursday around 50 of the hostages had been killed in Israeli air strikes.
An important regional player
Russia has ties to all key players in the Middle East, including Israel, Iran, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls Gaza.
Hamas released its own statement in which it praised the efforts of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and foreign ministry to end what it called "the crimes of Israel that are supported by the West," according to Russia's RIA news agency.
Separately, TASS news agency reported on Friday that another senior member of the Hamas delegation in Moscow, Abu Marzouk, had held talks with Kani.
The two discussed efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to its residents, and Baghiri Kani also reaffirmed Tehran's strong support for the Palestinian cause, TASS said, citing Iranian embassy sources in Moscow.