South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his capacity as chairman of the BRICS group, called for an "extraordinary joint meeting" on the situation in Gaza on Tuesday at 12 GMT.

The Kremlin, for its part, announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin will participate in the meeting. "On November 21, the Russian president will participate in an extraordinary BRICS summit (via videoconference) to discuss the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," he said in a statement.

After the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, the Kremlin called for a ceasefire, stressing that the only way to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East is the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Putin blamed the United States for the bloody conflict, accusing it of monopolizing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process for years without succeeding in finding solutions.

The president of South Africa, which on Friday along with four other countries asked the ICC to investigate the current war, will open the meeting, in which each country present is scheduled to speak, according to the presidential statement.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres will also attend the meeting, at the end of which leaders are expected to adopt a "joint statement on the situation in the Middle East, particularly in Gaza."

The South African government announced in early November that it was recalling its diplomats in Israel for consultations, expressing "concern" over Israel's "atrocities" in Gaza.

Pretoria has long been a fierce defender of the Palestinian cause, which the ruling African National Congress (ANC) often links to its struggle against apartheid.