Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett claimed on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized for comments by his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, that said “Adolf Hitler had Jewish blood.”
The Prime Minister’s Office released a statement on Twitter: “The two discussed Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s remarks. The Prime Minister accepted President Putin’s apology for Lavrov’s remarks and thanked him for clarifying his attitude towards the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust.”
Bennett also thanked Putin for his wishes on Yom Ha’azmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, on Thursday, which was marred at the end of the holiday by a terrorist attack in Elad in central Israel that left three dead and several people seriously wounded.
The two discussed Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov's remarks. The Prime Minister accepted President Putin's apology for Lavrov's remarks and thanked him for clarifying his attitude towards the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) May 5, 2022
The Israeli prime minister also made a humanitarian request to the Russian president for evacuation options from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol. On Friday, efforts were underway to evacuate Ukrainians who remained trapped for weeks in a steelworks factory basement, even as Russian shelling of the city continued.
