OREANDA-NEWS Russia has sent 27 tons of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the cargo will be delivered by a special board of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the ministry said.

The IL-76 special flight took off from the Ramenskoye airfield near Moscow to the airport in the Egyptian city of El-Arish. Humanitarian aid will be handed over to representatives of the Egyptian Red Crescent Society to be sent to the Gaza Strip. Flour, sugar, rice and pasta will be delivered to the Palestinians.

The ministry added that the assistance was organized on the instructions of President Vladimir Putin and on behalf of the Russian government.

Putin had previously said that Israel was facing an unprecedented brutal attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, and stressed that the country has the right to be protected. At the same time, he noted that the Israeli army responds to the attack with "rather brutal methods" and called for "minimizing or reducing to zero" civilian casualties.

"If men decide to fight among themselves, let them fight among themselves. Leave women and children alone," the President said, noting that we are talking about both sides of the conflict.

According to the Ministry of Health of Palestine, 3,478 people were killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli strikes, and more than 12 thousand people were injured. Approximately 1 million people were forced to leave their homes in the region, the UN reported. Of these, more than 352 thousand are sheltering in shelters in the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip. There are more than 300 thousand children among the internally displaced persons.