New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI) An External Affairs Ministry delegation led by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told a parliamentary panel on Friday that nearly 30,000 Indians are estimated to be staying in Israel, sources said.
About 9,000 construction workers and 700 farm workers have gone there as part of an agreement inked between the two countries before the conflict in West Asia broke out, they said, adding that they ministry highlighted its efforts to help the Indians living there.
In the presentation, the ministry reiterated India’s position voiced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that it wants the crisis to be defused through talks.
They added that some members in the meeting of the Standing Committee headed by Congress member Shashi Tharoor also raised the issues of recent agreement reached between India and China to address the border crisis in Ladakh sector and the plunge in India-Canada ties.
Officials made short remarks on the two issue in the meeting whose primary agenda was Misri’s briefing on the “Israel-Palestine Conflict”.
Tharoor said later that it was a “very good discussion”. The ministry said that the India-China agreement will restore the situation which prevailed prior to the border crisis in 2020, sources said.
An opposition MP, they added, asked if India had shown biases for Israel in this conflict.
However, the delegation in its presentation gave details of India’s humanitarian aid to the Palestinian authorities and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to help Palestinian refugees.
Misri spoke of India’s ties with Israel as well as Palestine, noting that Modi has been in touch with Israeli counter Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas.
Modi has condemned the Hamas’s brutal targeting of Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023 and has also expressed concerns at civilian casualties in a hospital in Palestine, the delegation said in its presentation.
India stands for two-state solution reached through talks to end the crisis, it said, noting that the country was among the first nations to recognise Palestine.
The presentation said India evacuated over 1,300 Indian citizens and also some Nepalese from Israel following the war as part of ‘Operation Ajay’. PTI KR KR TIR TIR
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