Israel summoned the Russian ambassador on Sunday to lodge a protest at Moscow’s hosting last week of a delegation from Hamas, the Palestinian militant group whose Oct. 7 attack on Israel killed at least 1,400 people and led to the war in Gaza.
Inviting Hamas “sends a message legitimising terrorism against Israelis,” Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement, quoting its senior staff as telling Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov. It described the summons as a protest rather than a reprimand.
Russia had described its hosting of Hamas as an effort to maintain contacts with all sides in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.