The Kremlin has hailed a ceasefire agreement in Gaza as the “first good news for a long time” in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, saying humanitarian pauses are the only way to build efforts for a sustainable settlement, Reuters reports.

“Russia and most countries were calling for a truce and humanitarian pauses, because only on the basis of such pauses can the contours of future attempts at a sustainable settlement be built,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.