{"id":37654,"date":"2023-10-13T08:07:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T02:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37654"},"modified":"2025-10-10T12:10:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T06:40:16","slug":"operation-ajay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/operation-ajay\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Ajay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>Operation Ajay<\/li>\n<li>News Summary: India reiterates stand on Palestine statehood<\/li>\n<li>Background<\/li>\n<li>Response given by the MEA<\/li>\n<li>Analysis of this response<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Days after the Israel-Hamas war broke, India reiterated its call for the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state.<\/li>\n<li>Also, the Ministry of External Affairs said that there was an obligation to uphold humanitarian principles.<\/li>\n<li>These statements came as India is sending a chartered flight to bring back Indian nationals under Operation Ajay.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Operation Ajay<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India has launched Operation Ajay to bring back Indians from Israel as the conflict escalated with Israel retaliating against Hamas&#8217;s attack.\n<ul>\n<li>Israel has declared war against Hamas and set up a war cabinet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Operation Ajay is not technically an evacuation operation. It is an operation to repatriate its citizens from Israel.<\/li>\n<li>Special chartered flights will bring back the Indians. Indian Navy ships will be deployed if the need arises.\n<ul>\n<li>There are about 18,000 Indians in Israel, and about 16 in Palestine \u2014 a dozen in the West Bank and 3-4 people in Gaza.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>News Summary: India reiterates stand on Palestine statehood<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Background:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>On October 7, hours after the Hamas\u2019s unprecedented attack on Israel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted a statement on X.<\/li>\n<li>Through this post, he expressed his deep shock at the terrorist attacks and said that we stand in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour.<\/li>\n<li>Five days later, <strong>in its first official statement on the Israel-Hamas war<\/strong>, New Delhi has sought to nuance this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Learn in Detail: <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/india-israel-relations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">India Israel Relations<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Response given by the MEA<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Universal obligation to observe international humanitarian law<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Ministry of External Affairs said that there is a universal obligation to observe international humanitarian law.<\/li>\n<li>The phrase \u2014 universal obligation to observe international humanitarian law \u2014 is seen as aimed at Israel which is conducting aerial strikes in Gaza.<\/li>\n<li>The clause, \u201cinternational humanitarian law,\u201d also seeks to protect innocent civilians and so this is meant for Hamas.<\/li>\n<li>Hamas killed civilians including women, children and the elderly.<\/li>\n<li>The targeted attacks against Israeli civilians have claimed 1,300 lives on the Israeli side, and the death toll in Gaza because of Israeli air strikes rose to more than 1,350.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fight against terrorism<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>MEA also said that there is also a global responsibility to fight the menace of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.<\/li>\n<li>This statement is a strong signal of support to Israel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>MEA reiterated its traditional position on the Israel-Palestine conflict<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>India has advocated the resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine living within secure and recognized borders, side by side at peace with Israel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Analysis of this response<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Balancing act<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>These statements are a part of Delhi\u2019s diplomatic imperatives as it has Israel as a key strategic partner on one side and allies in a divided Arab world on the other including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Iran and Egypt.<\/li>\n<li>There are an estimated 90 lakh Indians living and working in the West Asia region, and India imports more than 50 per cent of crude from the region.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Divided Arab World<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Hamas attack has divided the Arab world, too.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>UAE and Bahrain<\/strong>, which signed the US-brokered Abraham Accords with Israel, have criticised the attack.<\/li>\n<li>This was a rare departure from the past, where usually the entire Arab world would speak in a chorus against Israel.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Saudi Arabia has tried to strike a balance<\/strong>: it did mention Israeli occupation forces and was perceived to be leaning towards Palestine but there was no condemnation of the Hamas attacks.<\/li>\n<li>Qatar, Kuwait and Oman have been critical of Israel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is HAMAS?<\/h3>\n<p>Hamas is a militant Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movement that governs the Gaza Strip of the Palestinian territories. The acronym stands for \u1e24arakat al-Muq\u0101wamah al-Isl\u0101miyyah, which translates to &#8220;Islamic Resistance Movement&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) What is the geographical location of Israel?<\/h3>\n<p>Israel is located in the Middle East, on the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by: North: Lebanon and Syria; East: Jordan and the West Bank; Southwest: Egypt; West: The Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/israel-hamas-rampage-terrorist-attack-india-palestine-8980072\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Diplomatic tightrope: Delhi red-flags terror, reiterates stand on Palestine statehood<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/india-reiterates-call-for-sovereign-independent-viable-state-of-palestine\/article67411994.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">The Hindu<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/india-news\/what-is-operation-ajay-how-indians-stranded-in-israel-will-be-brought-back-101697084056759.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Hindustan Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India has launched Operation Ajay to bring back Indians from Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}