New Delhi: While India and Israel together underlined a “global zero-tolerance approach” against terrorism, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar asserted that Tel Aviv won’t compromise on disarming the Hamas insurgent group, even as the ceasefire in Gaza remains tenuous.

At their meeting on Tuesday (November 4), external affairs minister S. Jaishankar said both countries faced “a particular challenge from terrorism” and called for “a global approach of zero-tolerance towards terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations”.

His Israeli counterpart described “radical terror” as a mutual threat to both nations, condemned the recent attack in Pahalgam and said Israel faced “terror states” such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis that must be uprooted.

“The eradication of the Hamas terror state is at the heart of [US] President [Donald] Trump’s Plan. Hamas must be disarmed. Gaza must be demilitarised. We won’t compromise on it,” Sa'ar said.

Jaishankar, in turn, reiterated India’s support for the Gaza Peace Plan, welcomed the return of hostages and said New Delhi hoped the initiative would “pave the way for a durable and lasting solution”.

There was no mention of India’s support for the two-state solution, which is usually a standard part of India’s messaging on West Asia and which Jaishankar had conveyed during the visit of Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty last month.

Sa'ar, who is on his first visit to India as foreign minister, recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expression of solidarity with Israel after the October 7 Hamas attacks.

“We remember that he was the first world leader to call Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu after Hamas’ October 7th massacre. We won’t forget it,” he said.

India has abstained in at least four major UN General Assembly resolutions on Gaza in the past two years, signalling New Delhi’s closer alignment with Israel even as opposition parties have criticised the government for not being more vocal in supporting Palestinian rights.

The US-brokered ceasefire, which took effect on October 10 after two years of war, has largely halted fighting in Gaza but remains fragile.

Under the deal, Hamas agreed to release all 20 living hostages and return the remains of 28 others, while Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and handed over the bodies of 360 militants.

The ceasefire also led to a limited Israeli pullback to an agreed “yellow line” in Gaza and the reopening of the Rafah crossing with Egypt for humanitarian aid.

The truce is part of the first phase of Trump’s broader peace plan for Gaza, which envisions a step-by-step process culminating in the disarmament of Hamas, the creation of a technocratic Palestinian governing body and the deployment of an international stabilisation force before Israel’s full withdrawal.

However, disputes over ceasefire violations and the pace of the return of hostage remains have slowed progress. On Sunday, Hamas handed over the bodies of three hostages through the Red Cross, while accusing Israel of breaching the truce. Israel said Hamas had been slow to comply with the terms and that its forces continued to eliminate “Hamas pockets” in Gaza.

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Palestinian authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 230 people since the truce began, while Israel reports three military deaths during the same period.

The US has meanwhile submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council to obtain backing for Trump's peace plan, which includes provisions for the International Stabilisation Force to be deployed in the Gaza Strip.

The Ministry of External Affairs said Jaishankar and Sa'ar held “productive and detailed discussions” that covered the full spectrum of the India-Israel strategic partnership, including cooperation in political, security, agriculture, trade and investment, defence and people-to-people ties, as well as in critical and emerging technologies such as semiconductors, cyber security and artificial intelligence.

In his public remarks, Jaishankar also referred to the growing number of Indian workers in Israel. “They have some issues which need attention and I hope that we can take that dimension of our ties forward,” he said.

There are currently around 32,000 Indian workers in Israel, including 12,000 who arrived after the start of the Gaza war in October 2023 through both government-to-government arrangements and private recruitment channels.

India and Israel had signed a labour cooperation agreement in May 2023, but the first group under this government-to-government framework reached Israel only in April 2024, as the country faced an acute shortage of workers in its housing sector following the suspension of Palestinian labour after the war began.

By the end of 2024, Israeli authorities had recruited about 6,583 Indian workers for the construction industry through the bilateral framework. Before their arrival, most Indians in Israel were employed as caregivers.

Two Indian nationals have been killed in the conflict, a 31-year-old construction worker in a missile strike from Lebanon and a former Indian army officer working with the UN who died when his vehicle was hit in Gaza.

Three others have been injured in separate incidents.

In March this year, Israeli authorities claim to have rescued ten Indian construction workers from the West Bank after discovering that their passports were being used by Palestinians at checkpoints.

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