NEW DELHI: With Israel and Hamas reaching a deal for the release of some hostages and prisoners as well as a four-day pause in fighting, PM Modi on Wednesday expressed hope that all hostages would be released soon and reiterated his condemnation of terrorism and civilian deaths.
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Addressing the virtual G20 summit, Modi underscored the significance of “timely and uninterrupted” humanitarian aid in Gaza, while also calling for efforts to ensure that the Israel-Hamas fighting didn’t turn into a wider regional conflict.
After the meeting, Modi announced that there was agreement in G20 on many issues. These included zero tolerance for terrorism, and death of innocent civilians, especially women and children, being unacceptable. According to the PM, there was agreement also on five other issues — early, effective and safe distribution of humanitarian aid; welcoming humanitarian pause and release of hostages; resolving the Israel-Hamas issue through two-state solution; need for regional peace and stability and reducing political tensions through dialogue and diplomacy. “G20 is ready to help in this effort in whatever way possible,’’ Modi said.
Foreign minister S Jaishankar later said an overwhelming number of countries, but not all, spoke explicitly about the two-state solution and that there was no consensus on it.
The Israel-Hamas issue, not surprisingly, dominated the proceedings at the virtual interaction, almost pushing Russia’s war on Ukraine to the background.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict did figure, but not as the main concern, and was, in fact, used by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was absent from the G20 Summit in Delhi in September, to push back at the West’s criticism of his aggression against Kyiv.
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When European leaders called the Russian aggression in Ukraine “shocking”, Putin responded by saying military actions were always a tragedy for “specific people, specific families, and the country as a whole’’. Significantly, Putin also said “we must think about how to stop this tragedy”.
Referring to the Israel-Hamas conflict, he said, “Isn’t the extermination of the civilian population in Palestine, in the Gaza Strip, shocking today? Isn’t it shocking that the secretary general of the United Nations said that Gaza has turned into a huge children’s cemetery.”
In his opening remarks, Modi told the G20 leaders that new challenges had appeared in the past few months and lack of security and instability in the West Asia region was a cause of concern for all.
“Our coming together symbolises that we are all sensitive to issues and standing together to resolve them. We believe that terrorism is unacceptable to all of us. The death of civilians, no matter where it takes place, is condemnable,’’ he said.
“Despite the clouds of crisis looming, One Family (a theme of India’s presidency) has the power to together work for peace. From the human welfare perspective, we can raise our voice against terrorism and violence and in favour of humanity. India is ready to work hand-in-hand with others to fulfil these expectations of the world and humanity,’’ he added.
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Israel had earlier in the day announced that 50 hostages — women and children — will be released over four days, during which fighting will remain paused. It also said the release of every 10 additional hostages would result in one additional day of truce.
