Anadolu staff
18 February 2024•Update: 18 February 2024
BERLIN
India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar urged Israel to abide by international law amid growing concerns about a planned ground operation in Rafah.
Jaishankar said at the Munich Security Conference that there can be no justification for Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack but Israel’s response must strictly be within the framework of international humanitarian law.
“As Israel responds, it is important that Israel should be, should have been very mindful of civilian casualties, that it has an obligation to observe international humanitarian law,” he said.
Jaishankar urged Hamas to release all captives who are being held in Gaza. He also encouraged more efforts to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians.
“There is a need for a humanitarian corridor, a sustainable humanitarian corridor, to provide relief. And eventually there has to be a permanent fix, a long-term fix, otherwise we're going to see a recurrence,” he said.
Jaishankar also said that India believes that a two-state solution is the right prospect for Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace and security.
“India has long believed in a two-state solution, we have maintained that position for many decades. And I think today many more countries in the world today feel that the two-state solution is not just necessary but it is more urgent than it was before,” he said.
Since a cross-border incursion by Hamas on Oct. 7 that killed less than 1,200 people, an ensuing Israeli offensive into Gaza has killed more than 28,600 victims, mostly women and children, and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and to take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
