Gaza war sped up India’s shift towards Israel under Modi
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x whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during a meeting with the Indian community at the Tel Aviv Convention Center in the Israeli city, on July 5, 2017 [Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP] By Yashraj Sharma Published On 8 Oct 2026 8 Oct 2026 New Delhi, India – The United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Norway had already banned the entry of Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, who had advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the annexation of the occupied West Bank.
But in September 2025, as the European Union was planning bloc-wide sanctions against him and his fellow far-right colleague Itamar Ben-Gvir that it would eventually announce late that month, Smotrich was welcomed with garlands and a multi-city trip to India. In New Delhi, he signed a trade deal; in Mumbai, he visited the stock exchange; and in Gujarat – the home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – he travelled to a new investment hub.
As Israel was conducting its genocidal war on Gaza, bombing and killing dozens on the very days he was visiting India, New Delhi was ready to expand business with Israel like never before. For decades, India had been one of the world’s staunchest supporters of Palestine, and Europe one of Israel’s closest backers. India’s position has shifted firmly since 2014, when Modi and his Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party came to power. But analysts say the optics of Smotrich’s visit underlined something even more dramatic: At a time when even Europe, traditionally seen as backing Israel, has veered away from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the genocidal war on Gaza appears to have escalated India’s embrace of Israel.
In February this year, Modi visited Israel as Netanyahu – who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over war crimes carried out in Gaza – faced growing isolation in the international arena.
“You are a great friend of Israel. You are more than a friend. You are a brother,” Netanyahu told Modi when both leaders addressed the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem.
Three years of Israeli attacks have killed at least 74,000 Palestinians, including at least 21,000 children. That is about one in every 30 people, or 3 percent of the pre-war population.
Historically, India has argued that diplomacy and dialogue are the way forward to resolve conflicts – whether between Russia and Ukraine, the US and Iran, or Israel and Palestine. New Delhi has maintained that war doesn’t solve anything.
But investigations by Al Jazeera and other reporting have revealed that New Delhi exported weapons to Israel during the ongoing genocidal war on Gaza. Meanwhile, under Modi, India has become Israel’s largest weapons buyer.
Just hours after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, India’s Modi unequivocally condemned the “terrorist attack”, adding that he was “deeply shocked”. When he visited Israel in February this year, Modi referred to the Mumbai attacks in 2008, carried out by Pakistani fighters, which New Delhi has blamed on the Pakistani government. “Like you, we have a consistent and uncompromising policy of zero tolerance for terrorism with no double standards,” Modi said.
Analysts believe that the framing of Israel as a country under attack has helped Modi justify pushing India closer to it. For decades, much of the politics of Modi’s BJP “has hovered around Islamist expansionism or Islamic terrorism”, said Rasheed Kidwai, a political analyst in New Delhi.
“So it helps [in relationship with Israel],” Kidwai said, pointing to the link between Modi’s Israel policy and his domestic politics. “Take this relationship as an extension of the domestic narrative that one sees in India.”
The Indian Hindu right has long supported the ideology of Zionism, analysts note. Modi’s BJP has roots in a philosophy, Hindutva, which ultimately seeks to transform India into a Hindu nation and a natural homeland for Hindus anywhere in the world – similar to Israel’s view of itself as a Jewish homeland.
Since the October 7 attacks on Israel, Kidwai noted, “the anti-Muslim sentiments fill in that block in India.” This feeling is, of course, coupled with “pragmatism in New Delhi because Israel is a potent international player”.
Navdeep Suri, a former Indian diplomat who served as ambassador to Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, told Al Jazeera that people-to-people ties are also a central pillar of the India-Israel relationship, “particularly within a section of Indian society that has strong admiration for the muscular policy that Israel adopts”.
Time and again, there have been calls from within Indian right-wing echelons for Modi to adopt more Israel-like policies, from clampdowns in Indian-administered Kashmir to attacking neighbouring Pakistan.
Suri noted that a shift towards Israel predates the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza. “Under PM Modi, a relationship that was largely covert or under the carpet has become a much more open relationship,” the former Indian diplomat said.
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