Israel-India: Comrade-in-arms Over Gaza

• CrossFireArabia
• June 24, 2024

India has been supplying Israel with weapons ever since the latter started its war on Gaza since 7 October, 2023.

New Delhi has been supplying Israel with artillery shells, drones and other weapons on a regular basis. It supplied Israel the advanced Hermes 900 drones that have been towering over the skies of Gaza for the last nine months.

The Hermes 900 is a drone that can be used for surveillance and aerial bombardment and have already been in active deployment in the Gaza Strip.

India joins the USA, France, Britain, Germany and Canada as an Israeli constant military supplier to keep Israel’s devastating war on Gaza going and resulted in the killing of more than 37,000 people and injured 85,000 today combined with the mass bombings of the houses, schools, infrastructure, government buildings and more.

Traditionally it has been Israel that exported hardware military equipment to India, however, Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza has turned things around. Now, it is India that is the main exporter of arms to Israel.

It continued with the 27-ton explosives shipment that India tried to send to Israel through Spanish ports last May. But today this relationship continues as India has become crucial in providing Israel with ammunition through joint deals between Israeli and Indian defence contracting companies.

The military relationship underscores the close ties that developed between India and Israeli under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Narendra Modi who become the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel and 2017.

Today India and Israel are regarded as key allies, underlined by the fact that the latter has become a huge destination for Indian tourists.  

However, the ex-Israeli ambassador in New Delhi Daniel Carmon put the relation between the two countries in an overall context. He said India might be supplying weapons to Israel as a gesture of gratitude for Israel assistance during the Kargil war of 1999 as reported in the Quds News Network.

“The Indians always remind us that Israel was there for them during the Kargil war. Israel was one of the few countries that stood by them and provided them with weapons. The Indians don’t forget this and might now be returning the favor,” Carmon stated.

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The comments of the former diplmat came amid reports confirming India has supplied drones and artillery shells to Israel during its ongoing war on Gaza, which international bodies like the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice have ruled as involving serious war crimes committed by Israel.

However despite the developing close relations India have always backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when India established a PLO office in the country in the 1970s.

Further, in 2108 Modi made it a point of visiting Ramallah as part of a regional visit to Jordan and the Arab Gulf countries and in an effort to balance India’s foreign policy in the Middle East.