Moscow, May 22 (IANS): The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the country appreciates the truce between Israel and Palestine and calls for an urgent meeting of the Middle East Quartet to prevent a relapse into conflict.

"Moscow notes with deep satisfaction that at 2 a.m. (Palestinian time) on May 21 (2300 GMT on Thursday) a ceasefire in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone entered into force," the ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at her weekly briefing, Xinhua reported.

She expressed Russia's deep condolences to the families of the victims in the deadly military confrontation.

Zakharova stressed the need to prevent a reoccurrence of violent conflict between Israel and Palestine, and said the truce was an important yet "insufficient" step.

She called for international and regional efforts towards resuming direct political dialogue and address final status issues in line with relevant United Nations (UN) resolutions.

Moscow considers it important to hold an urgent meeting of the Middle East Quartet, namely Russia, the European Union, the UN and the US, at the ministerial level, she said.

"Russia's proposal to hold direct negotiations on the territory of our country between the leaderships of Israel and Palestine without preconditions remains in force," she added.