Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar reiterated India’s call for a two-state solution to permanently resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict. He also said that Israel should have been mindful of civilian casualties in its (ongoing) response to Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, while calling that attack “terrorism”.
“No caveats, no justification, no explanation. It was terrorism,” Mr. Jaishankar said during a panel discussion with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and German counterpart, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
“It is important that Israel should be, should have been, very mindful of civilian casualties,” Mr. Jaishankar said, adding that Israel has an obligation to observe international humanitarian law. He called for the return of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and for the opening of a “sustainable humanitarian corridor” to provide relief in Gaza, where, as per the region’s Health Ministry, at least 28,000 civilians — many of them children — have been killed in Israel’s retaliation for Hamas’s October 7 assault. At least 2.2 million people have been displaced since mid-December.
