New Delhi: India sent medical and disaster relief aid for Palestinians on Sunday (October 22).
>External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi announced on X (formerly Twitter) that an Indian Air Force C-17 flight carrying nearly 6.5 tonnes of medical aid and 32 tonnes of disaster relief material departed for the El-Arish airport in Egypt.>
“The material includes essential life-saving medicines, surgical items, tents, sleeping bags, tarpaulins, sanitary utilities, [and] water purification tablets among other necessary items,” Bagchi’s post said.
El-Arish airport is roughly 45 kilometres away from the Rafah crossing on Egypt’s border with the Gaza strip.>
Rafah is currently the only crossing point for humanitarian aid into Gaza.
But the crossing has not been fully operational since the war between Israel and Hamas began.>
The BBC cited Egyptian media as saying that Israeli air strikes were causing disruptions near the crossing.>
International aid to Palestine has remained in warehouses in El-Arish, but negotiations involving Israel, Egypt, the US and the UN resulted in the Rafah crossing opening on Saturday (October 21).>
A convoy including 20 aid trucks entered Gaza following the crossing’s opening, Al Jazeera reported.
India supports Palestine and Palestinian refugees through contributions to the UN’s relief and works agency (UNRWA).>
It has contributed a total of $36.5 million to the UNRWA between 2002 and 2022-23, the external affairs ministry said in a brief dated May this year.>
Bagchi said on behalf of the ministry earlier this month that India has “always advocated the resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent, and viable state of Palestine”.>
This includes Palestine “living within secure and recognised borders side by side at peace with Israel”.>
>Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas last week and “reiterated India’s long-standing and principled position on the Israel-Palestine issue”.>
He has also spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and expressed solidarity with Israel.>
“People of India firmly stand with Israel in this difficult hour. India strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” a post from Modi’s X account said.>
Within India, students from Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh Muslim University were booked for taking out a march in support of Palestine without permission, the Indian Express reported.>
They were booked under IPC sections related to promoting enmity among different groups, disobedience to orders promulgated by a public servant and statements conducting to public mischief.>
Authorities in Kashmir also barred Srinagar residents from offering Friday prayers at the city’s Jamia Masjid due to fears regarding protests over the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine.>
An Uttar Pradesh official told the Express that chief minister Adityanath said that “any activity contrary to the views of [the] government of India would not be accepted on this issue [the Israel-Hamas war]”.>
Al Jazeera reported that a lot of disinformation on social media targeting Palestinians since the Israel-Hamas war began had come from right-wing accounts based in India.>
Starting with a surprise strike on Israel by Hamas – a socio-political and military organisation that rules the Gaza Strip – on October 7, the Israel-Hamas war has so far claimed the lives of 1,400 Israelis and 4,137 Palestinians.>
Hamas also captured more than 200 people as hostages after the initial assault. Two of the hostages were released on Friday.>
On Sunday (October 22), Israel carried out an air strike in Jenin, saying that Hamas was using a mosque as a “terrorist compound”, the BBC reported.>
Jenin is located in the West Bank, which has the other Palestinian territories in the region and is ruled by Hamas’s rival Fatah.>