Beneficial contact: Palestine hopes for Russia in resolving the conflict in Gaza
Palestine is counting on Russia's mediation in resolving relations with Israel, as US diplomacy has reached an impasse, the country's ambassador to Russia, Abdel Hafiz Nofal, told Izvestia. The American peace plan has, in fact, failed: cease-fire agreements are constantly being violated, the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip claims 1,000 dead since the fall of 2025, and only 36% of the agreed humanitarian aid has been received. The situation is aggravated by the crisis in Israel, where the Netanyahu government rejects the US idea of transferring Gaza to the Palestinian authority and demands indefinite military control. In this situation, Ramallah is pinning its hopes on Moscow, which maintains contacts with all sides and is able to unite the Palestinian factions.
American diplomacy has reached an impasse in the Gaza Strip
The situation in the Gaza Strip remains extremely unstable. The ceasefire agreement, concluded in October 2025 with the mediation of the United States, formally remains in force, but is regularly violated. According to the exclave's Ministry of Health, about 1,000 Palestinians have died since the truce was announced. About 90% of the civil, including municipal and medical, infrastructure of the sector has been completely destroyed and is not being restored due to the blocking of supplies of building materials.
The ceasefire agreement stipulated that Israel would allow 600 trucks with humanitarian aid into the strip every day, but according to the Gaza authorities, only 36% of this number have passed through checkpoints in the last eight months.
The UN reports a catastrophic shortage of engine oil and spare parts. Without them, diesel generators, the only sources of energy for hospitals and water pumping stations, wear out and fail. The largest hospitals (for example, Nasser in Khan Yunis) have completely run out of up to half of the basic medicines, including anesthetics and antibiotics. Negotiations on the implementation of a long-term peace plan are stalling, and the IDF continues to gradually expand its military positions inside the enclave.
In a situation where the United States cannot resolve the conflict, Palestine is relying on Russia, the country's ambassador to Russia, Abdel Hafiz Nofal, told Izvestia.
— We are confident in Russia, we are confident in the role of Russia today and tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. And I recall President Vladimir Putin's statement in St. Petersburg when he spoke about the need to resolve the Palestinian issue. Because without a solution to the Palestinian issue, there will be problems everywhere in the Middle East," the diplomat stressed.
Abdel Hafiz Nofal recalled that the IDF controls 60% of the Gaza Strip, and in late May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention to control more than 70% of the territory.
"The Americans have taken on this issue, but they are still not doing anything," the ambassador added.
According to him, due to Israel's actions, the National Committee for the Governance of the Gaza Strip, formed by the Peace Council under the chairmanship of the United States, cannot enter the exclave while in Cairo.
After the truce, the United States promoted the "Trump plan" in the UN Security Council for the post—war structure of Gaza, a two-stage governance structure. These are the Peace Council (which includes representatives of the United States, Arab countries and other states), which is responsible for strategic decisions, investments and general security, as well as the National Committee for the Management of Gaza, consisting of Palestinian apolitical technocrats.
In January 2026, the committee members gathered in Cairo, hoping to quickly enter the Gaza Strip, but Israel refused to give security guarantees and let the technocrats through, demanding the complete disarmament of Hamas. The movement is in no hurry to surrender its weapons. The process is stalling due to Israeli strikes. The White House has committed to coordinating the committee's passage. However, he has so far been unable or unwilling to put pressure on Israel.
Even if Israel begins to establish full military control over the Gaza Strip, Donald Trump will not interfere in this, says Konstantin Blokhin, a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to him, both US parties are pro—Israel, and Trump himself is the same, so the president's harsh criticism of Prime Minister Netanyahu is often just an imitation.
In addition, at the end of May 2026, the Financial Times published an investigation confirming that not a single dollar had been credited to its account since the high-profile launch of the Peace Council. Thus, this structure is just a political decoration. Progress on all three of his main objectives (disarming Hamas, withdrawing Israeli troops, and rebuilding infrastructure) is zero.
In this situation, Palestine hopes that improving relations between Russia and the United States can play a decisive role.
— We are sure that we must find a common language with the Israelis, but they still do not want it. And therefore, we hope that good US-Russian relations will be able to change the situation," concluded Abdel Hafiz Nofal.
On June 14, 2026, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump held telephone talks, one of the central topics of which was the Middle East. US special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are expected to visit again to continue diplomatic consultations. In addition, in early 2026, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was ready to send $1 billion to rebuild Gaza through the American structures of the Peace Council, and this contribution is planned to be made from Russian assets frozen in the United States.
Russia's ability to resolve the conflict in the Gaza Strip
Russia is officially promoting the concept of two states for two peoples (the creation of a sovereign Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, co-existing with Israel). Vladimir Putin regularly declares that without this, "the vicious circle of violence will not be broken."
The diplomatic focus of Palestine has been shifted towards Moscow for most of its history, Konstantin Blokhin stressed. After the 1967 Six-Day War, the Soviet Union severed diplomatic relations with Israel and placed a strategic stake in the Arab world. From that moment on, Moscow began to support the Palestinians' right to self-determination.
Russia proceeds from the thesis that the Palestinians will not be able to achieve the creation of a state while their movement is divided. Moscow has already acted as a neutral platform for uniting factions. Since 2006-2007, when Fatah and Hamas split and the Gaza Strip came under the latter's control, Moscow has held a series of major rounds of inter-Palestinian consultations. The last one took place in 2024. In addition to Fatah and Hamas, the Russian side gathered more than 10 Palestinian movements. Following the meeting, the factions signed a joint statement, where for the first time in a long time they agreed to conduct a dialogue under the auspices of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
— Russia, unlike Israel and the United States, maintains contact with Hamas. And Moscow even brokered the release of Israeli hostages, which led to the release of several people, but the degree of Moscow's influence on both the group and Israel is now low. It must be recognized and understood that when the Palestinians turn to Russia for help, they rely more on Russia's role in international organizations such as the United Nations than on its influence on the ground," international political scientist Elena Suponina explained to Izvestia.
At the General Assembly and the UN Security Council, Russia consistently acts as the main advocate of Palestinian statehood. The Russian Federation unconditionally supports granting Palestine the status of a full member of the organization (now it is an observer state), and also votes for resolutions calling on Israel to comply with the verdict of the International Court of Justice and immediately cease its illegal presence in the occupied territories.
In addition, Russia and Israel maintain high-level contacts. The direct dialogue between Putin and Netanyahu has not stopped, and it is this communication channel that remains one of the most promising tools for resolving the situation. If there is a question of transferring Gaza to the control of third forces or forming a new administration, Israel may agree to Russia's participation as one of the international observers or guarantors of the agreements.
In this case, the situation, according to experts, may develop as follows. The first task is to stop the clashes and secure the positions. Then the IDF gradually retreats to the border buffer zones. Then the leaders of the Palestinian factions gather in Moscow or in another convenient place in the world. Hamas officially transfers civilian authority in Gaza to the interim Government and disarms. The Russian Federation is passing a new resolution through the UN Security Council, which legally establishes the status of the interim government. The next step is general parliamentary and presidential elections. The final stage is the proclamation of Palestinian statehood and direct negotiations with Israel on the demarcation of the border.
Another partner of Russia in the region is the League of Arab States, which is designed to form a consolidated position of the countries of the Middle East. The Russian Federation has made the peace initiative (adopted by the Arab League back in 2002) the basis of its diplomatic platform. The project offers Israel full normalization of relations with all Arab countries in exchange for withdrawal from the occupied territories and the creation of Palestine. However, the project has not been implemented since 2002.
— A multilateral format is necessary to solve the problem of the Gaza Strip. However, with all due respect to the League of Arab States, this organization has little impact. So we need to look for other formats here," Suponina emphasized.
As a result, normalization of relations between Russia and the United States may become one of the factors capable of moving the Palestinian settlement off the ground: without close coordination between the two players, it will be extremely difficult to unblock aid, coordinate the post-war structure of Gaza, and encourage the parties to comply with the agreements. For Moscow and Washington, this will be a test of whether, despite all the contradictions, they are ready to work together where the peace process is clearly stalling without their participation.
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