Gaza in Ruins. India Has Chosen Alignment.
- Karvaan Spotlight Desk
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 16 hours ago
Listen to the Podcast in Hindi
Video Explainer
The Lead India Has Chosen Alignment
Gaza is not simply at war. It is enduring systemic devastation. According to successive reports of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been reported killed since October 7, 2023. Over 1.7 million people have been displaced, representing the overwhelming majority of the territory’s population. Civilian infrastructure has collapsed at scale. Hospitals have been rendered inoperable. Water systems have been destroyed. Residential blocks have been levelled.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned in December 2023 of imminent famine risk in northern Gaza without sustained humanitarian access. In January 2024, the International Court of Justice ordered provisional measures under the Genocide Convention, acknowledging plausible risk to protected populations and demanding safeguards.
This is not a routine conflict cycle. It has triggered emergency sessions of the United Nations General Assembly, legal proceedings at The Hague and diplomatic rupture across parts of the Global South.
It is in this precise moment of humanitarian catastrophe and legal scrutiny that India has chosen to publicly consolidate and deepen its strategic partnership with Israel.
That timing is not incidental. It defines the politics of the moment.
The Context | How We Got Here
India established full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. For several years, the relationship remained cautious, shaped by India’s balancing between Arab partners and post Cold War realignments.
The turning point came during the 1999 Kargil conflict, when Israel supplied precision guided munitions and unmanned systems at short notice. Operational trust was built under crisis.
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, intelligence and counter terrorism cooperation intensified. Israeli surveillance systems, drone technology and security doctrine became embedded in India’s internal security architecture.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Arms Transfers Database for the 2019 to 2023 cycle, Israel accounted for roughly 10 to 13 percent of India’s total arms imports. India operates Israeli Phalcon airborne early warning systems, Heron unmanned aerial vehicles, Spike anti tank missiles and the jointly developed Barak 8 air defence system.
This is not peripheral procurement. It is institutional interdependence.
In 2017, Narendra Modi visited Israel without pairing the trip with Ramallah. The diplomatic de hyphenation was deliberate. Palestine ceased to function as a parallel public axis in India’s West Asia choreography.
In September 2023, the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor announced at the G20 summit embedded Israel within India’s long term connectivity architecture linking Indian ports to Europe through Gulf states and Mediterranean transit.
Israel became not only a defence partner but an infrastructural node in India’s geoeconomic strategy.
The relationship has matured into structural alignment.
The Collective Memory
India’s earlier posture toward Palestine was explicit and principled.
On November 29, 1947, India voted against United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 proposing partition. Jawaharlal Nehru warned that imposed division without consent would not yield durable peace.
In 1974, India recognised the Palestine Liberation Organization as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Indira Gandhi described the Palestinian struggle as one against occupation and dispossession, aligning it with anti colonial movements across Asia and Africa.
In November 1988, India recognised the State of Palestine within days of its declaration.
For decades thereafter, India’s voting record at the United Nations consistently affirmed Palestinian self determination and criticised settlement expansion.
Palestine was not treated as a tactical file. It was part of India’s anti colonial grammar and its moral vocabulary in global forums.
The Data | Contemporary Trends
India’s recent multilateral behaviour illustrates recalibration without formal reversal.
On October 27, 2023, India voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce. In December 2023, it supported a humanitarian ceasefire resolution while emphasising in its explanation of vote that terrorism must also be condemned. India abstained on certain amendments that sharpened language directed specifically at Israeli military conduct.
India continues to state support for a two state solution. Yet it has not led or sponsored resolutions centred on accountability mechanisms.
Meanwhile, defence and economic integration proceed without pause.
Bilateral trade excluding defence stood at approximately 7.86 billion US dollars in FY 2022 to 2023. More than 30 Indo Israeli agricultural Centres of Excellence operate across Indian states. Israeli water management, cyber and surveillance technologies are integrated into Indian systems.
The contrast is stark. As humanitarian documentation intensifies, strategic interdependence remains insulated.
By the Numbers
The humanitarian context is stark.
Since October 7, 2023:
More than 30,000 Palestinians reported killed
Approximately 1.7 million displaced
Majority of northern Gaza’s housing stock damaged or destroyed
Famine risk warnings issued in December 2023
ICJ provisional measures ordered January 2024
In parallel:
10 to 13 percent of India’s arms imports sourced from Israel
Barak 8 missile system operational
Bilateral trade approximately 7.86 billion US dollars
IMEC corridor positions Israel as a key transit node
Comparative Snapshot | UN Voting Pattern
Pre 2017Consistent votes critical of occupation and settlement expansionSignal: Declarative solidarity with Palestinian statehood
2017 to 2022Continued two state support, selective abstentions emergeSignal: Diplomatic recalibration
Post October 2023Support humanitarian resolutions, avoid sharper censureSignal: Strategic caution and emphasis on terrorism
The shift is gradual but measurable.
The National Question
India seeks permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council and projects itself as a leading voice of the Global South.
Approximately 8 to 9 million Indians reside in Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Remittances remain economically significant. India maintains parallel strategic interests with Israel, Gulf monarchies and Iran, including renewed operational agreements at Chabahar Port.
Balancing is complex. But leadership is tested in moments of moral asymmetry.
If India foregrounds strategic warmth while civilian devastation dominates global attention, it risks eroding the moral authority it invokes in multilateral forums.
Anti colonial memory carries obligations.
Between the Lines
The most revealing element of this moment is emphasis.
During famine warnings, legal scrutiny at the International Court of Justice and documented civilian devastation, India has highlighted defence cooperation, innovation partnerships and corridor diplomacy with Israel.
Humanitarian concern has been expressed multilaterally. It has not been matched by visible diplomatic pressure or assertive public advocacy for ceasefire enforcement and accountability.
In foreign policy, what is amplified during crisis signals priority.
The sequencing suggests strategic interdependence has been insulated from humanitarian calculus.
That insulation is itself a political choice.
The Global Lens
Across Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia, the Gaza war has revived historical memories of occupation and racial hierarchy.
South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice reflects its anti apartheid legacy. Several Latin American states adopted sharper language or recalibrated diplomatic ties.
Public opinion across much of the Global South remains deeply sympathetic to Palestinian statehood.
India’s posture places it at visible distance from that moral current. Simultaneously, India’s alignment with Western security frameworks situates it within a different geopolitical camp.
If India seeks to speak for the Global South, it must reconcile that divergence.
Economic growth and defence capability alone do not secure leadership. Moral credibility does.
Voices | Now
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the October 7 attacks and expressed solidarity with Israel in unequivocal terms.
India’s representatives at the United Nations have reiterated the need to condemn terrorism while supporting humanitarian access and a two state solution.
Israeli leaders describe India as a key defence and technology partner. Palestinian officials continue to invoke India’s early recognition of statehood and urge stronger public advocacy for ceasefire and accountability.
Within India, the debate is sharper. Some defend strategic realism. Others argue that visible asymmetry during humanitarian crisis damages India’s moral standing.
The divide is reputational and political.
Editor’s Lens | Karvaan India
India’s partnership with Israel is no longer cautious engagement. It is strategic alignment built on defence interdependence, technological integration and infrastructural ambition.
These ties are real. They carry strategic value.
But value does not eliminate responsibility.
When tens of thousands of civilians are reported dead, when displacement reaches near total levels, when famine warnings circulate and when the International Court of Justice intervenes, a state must decide what it chooses to emphasise.
India has chosen continuity and warmth. That choice narrows the moral vocabulary that once defined Indian diplomacy.
Supporting Palestinian statehood, demanding immediate and durable ceasefire, insisting on civilian protection and accountability under international law are not radical positions. They are consistent with India’s historic commitments.
India need not sever relations with Israel. But it must restore visible equilibrium.
If strategic ambition eclipses justice, India’s claim to Global South leadership weakens.
A republic born of resistance cannot afford selective solidarity.
History will remember where nations stood when civilians were under siege.
Understand the Spotlight through Karvaan India’s slide deck. Download now.