Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Vladimir Putin of Russia spoke by telephone on Sunday for the first time in weeks, offering sharply different accounts of what was said in a reflection of the strained relationship between the two leaders since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.

Netanyahu said he was dissatisfied with positions that Moscow had adopted at the UN Security Council and “expressed sharp criticism of the dangerous cooperation between Russia and Iran”, according to a statement from his office.

For its part, the Kremlin said the focus of the conversation was on the “catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip”.

Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council, on Friday, backed a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and said the US was “complicit in Israel’s brutal massacre” an apparent reference to the more than 17,000 people who health authorities in Gaza say have been killed in the enclave since the war began. The US blocked the resolution, arguing that Israel has the right to defend itself against attacks by Hamas.

Netanyahu’s criticism of Russia over its ties with Iran is, in part, a reference to the close relationship between the two countries fostered by the war in Ukraine. Iran, a principal backer of Hamas, has supplied Russia with thousands of exploding drones for use in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Putin has called the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel a terrorist act — and he reiterated that position during the call on Sunday, the Kremlin said. While his support for Israel was initially muted, he has tried to preserve working ties with the country. At the same time, Putin has argued that the dominance of western elites allowed for the crisis to happen in the first place.

New York Times News Service