India has joined western nations in condemning the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza.
India has condemned "all acts of violence" but specifically criticized rocket attacks from Gaza, at an emergency closed-door session of the United Nations Security Council called to discuss the ongoing hostilities in Gaza, Indian newspaper The Wire reported.
Rockets fired by the Hamas militia from Gaza into Israel have killed several persons, including an Indian woman, Soumya Santosh, a 30-year-old native of Kerala, working as a caregiver for an Israeli family in Ashkelon near Tel Aviv.
India's permanent representative to UN, T.S. Tirumurti, in a tweet, stated that India condemned "all acts of violence, especially rocket attacks from Gaza".
Though the rockets caused little or no damage, Israel responded with disproportionate force, launching airstrikes into Gaza that killed 126 Palestinians, including 31 children and 20 women while the number of injured rose to 920, according to a statement from the Gaza Health Ministry.
India's commendable alliance with Israel
From arms deals to occupation in Kashmir and the West Bank, Indian Prime Minister Modi and his Israeli counterpart Netanyahu increasingly share the same ethno-nationalist worldview, according to Somdeep Sen, an associate professor of international development studies at Roskilde University in Denmark.
Writing under the title "India's Alliance With Israel Is a Model for the World's Illiberal Leaders" in Foreign Policy in September 2020, Prof. Sen recalled that in late November 2019, there was widespread outrage over a video of the Indian Consul-General in New York, Sandeep Chakravorty, in which he suggested to a gathering of Kashmiri Hindus that India should follow the Israeli model, and build settlements in the Kashmir Valley to secure the return of Hindus.
The most significant facet of Indian-Israeli relations is robust security-defense cooperation, according to Prof Sen.
Since the early days of its establishment in 1968, the Research and Analysis WingIndia's external intelligence agencyhas also maintained close relations with Israel's Mossad.
Israel has replaced Russia as India's preferred all-season weapons supplier. Today, Israel is second only to Russia as India's largest weapons supplier. But while Russian supplies fell by 47 percent in 2015-2019, weapons imports from Israel increased by 175 percent.
Indian Police Service trainees visit the Israel National Police Academy every year for training. The Indian Border Security Force uses Israeli-developed smart fencing systems as well as radar and surveillance technology in the volatile Kashmir valley.
The India-Israel relationship is no longer purely a matter of realpolitik; it is also being strengthened by a shared ideology, Prof. Sen pointed out adding:
The consequences of this are significant. India, and its Hindu nationalist leadership, has found an ally that is willing to publicly support its widely criticized and often draconian political moves. At the same time Israel, has found an ally willing to cultivate a political, economic, and strategic partnership irrespective of its conduct towards Palestinians.
EU leaders affirm support for Israel's securityGoing back to the Israeli-Palestinian fighting, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter Friday: "I condemn indiscriminate attacks by Hamas on Israel". "Civilians on all sides must be protected. Violence must end now."
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