Hamas leaders visit Moscow days after Kremlin official's antisemitic comments

Senior Hamas leaders are visiting Moscow to speak with Russian officials about the increasing Israeli-Palestinian tensions, with a focus on recent clashes at Al-Aqsa mosque, the site of the Temple Mount.

The meeting comes days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's antisemitic remarks pushing for the "denazification" of Ukraine and accusing Jewish Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of being an antisemite.

Hamas' founding charter compares Jews to Nazis and calls for the killing of all Jews, including women and children.

Hamas leaders, including the head of Hamas's external bureau Dr. Mousa Abu Marzook, arrived in Moscow on Wednesday.

The Foreign Terrorist Organization said in a translated statement that its "leading delegation will meet with Russian officials to discuss the latest developments in the Palestinian arena, especially the current events in Al-Aqsa Mosque and the West Bank."

The group called on supporters to "mobilize in the city of Jerusalem" on Wednesday in response to Israeli plans to tour the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, on Israeli's independence day.

Hamas' meeting comes after Italian outlet Zona Bianca on Sunday asked Lavrov about Zelensky's rebuttals to Russia's accusations of Nazism in Ukraine.

"He puts forward an argument: What kind of Nazism can they have if he is a Jew. I could be wrong, but [Adolf] Hitler also had Jewish blood. It means absolutely nothing. The wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews. 'The family has its black sheep,' as we say," Lavrov responded, as translated.

The foreign minister's comment, which came days after Holocaust Rememberance Day, outraged Israelis. 

"I view with utmost severity the Russian Foreign Minister's statement. His words are untrue and their intentions are wrong," Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement obtained by Just the News.

"The goal of such lies is to accuse the Jews themselves of the most awful crimes in history, which were perpetrated against them, and thereby absolve Israel's enemies of responsibility," he said. "As I have already said, no war in our time is like the Holocaust or is comparable to the Holocaust."

Yad Vashem also condemned Lavrov's statement.

"The remarks of Russian Foreign Minister Sergeĭ Lavrov, as quoted, are absurd, delusional, dangerous and deserving of condemnation. Lavrov is propagating the inversion of the Holocaust - turning the victims into the criminals on the basis of promoting a completely unfounded claim that Hitler was of Jewish descent," the World Holocaust Remembrance Center said.

"Equally serious is calling the Ukrainians in general, and President Zelensky in particular, Nazis. This, among other things, is a complete distortion of the history and an affront to the victims of Nazism," Yad Vashem added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized Israel and sided with the Palestinian people last month despite Israel's efforts to remain neutral throughout Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Israel previously volunteered to act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine.