New Delhi: In a sharp rebuke of the Narendra Modi government, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi accused the Narendra Modi government on Saturday of a “stony silence” and “inaction” over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, calling the stance both morally indefensible and strategically bewildering, PTI reported.
In an article for The Indian Express, Gandhi argued India’s quiet has alienated long-standing partners across the Middle East and left a space that Pakistan has moved to occupy as a mediator.
She described Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Israel only days ahead of the US-Israeli joint strikes on Iran as “a bewildering strategic decision,” saying New Delhi’s current posture has “yielded us nothing but the friendship between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
Moral Duty & Documented Findings
Gandhi said India must speak up for Palestinians and respond to international opinion condemning Israel’s “genocidal actions” in Gaza and the “brutal displacement and dispossession of lakhs of Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank.”
“The Modi government’s continued silence simply cannot be explained rationally or morally,” she wrote.
Citing the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, she noted a September 2025 finding that Israeli authorities were committing genocide, and added that a June 2026 report, now headed by Justice (retired) S. Muralidhar, “has poignantly reiterated that Israeli actions are intended to destroy the very existence of the Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children.”
“The 94-page report is a harrowing read, with grim details on the extent of the devastation perpetrated by Israel in Gaza and the genocidal intent underpinning its actions. At least 20,000 children have been killed, and another 44,000 have been wounded, many for life,” Gandhi said.
She insisted the targeting of children is deliberate: “Twenty-seven per cent of those killed or wounded have been children and many of the boys were found with bullets on the head and neck. Ninety-seven per cent of Gaza’s schools have been destroyed.” She added that destruction of paediatric hospitals and healthcare infrastructure has produced a “300 per cent increase in miscarriage and childbirth complications.”
Scale Of Violence & Global Response
Gandhi described Israel’s response to the 2024 Hamas attack as marked by “wanton cruelty and barbarity,” and cited senior Israeli leaders who, she said, called for the “complete siege” and “total annihilation” of Gaza, labelled Palestinians as “animals” who have “no right to exist,” and defined success as “hundreds of thousands fleeing Gaza.”
She blamed support from the Trump administration in Washington for enabling the “brutal campaign,” while saying UN agencies have helped document alleged war crimes despite American obstruction.
Pointing to a shifting global stance, Gandhi observed that several Western powers — France, the UK, Canada, and Australia — have recognised Palestinian statehood or imposed restrictions, South Africa has taken Israel to the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention, and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
“A very large number of countries with whom India enjoys close relations have recognised Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide,” she wrote. “Amidst the growing public backlash against Israel and the international community’s cognisance of the unjustifiable brutality unleashed on Gaza, India remains a lone voice of silence.”
Human Cost & Appeal For Change
Recalling the story of Hind Rajab to underscore civilian suffering, Gandhi wrote: “A girl of just five, fleeing Gaza City with her family when Israeli forces fired 335 rounds at their car, killing her six family members, leaving her trapped in a car with her relatives’ dead bodies while paramedics attempted to rescue her. She was eventually killed, along with two paramedics.”
She warned that India’s alignment with Israel risks abandoning India’s historic commitments to postcolonial solidarity and international justice: “Today we are exceptional in our continued indifference to the flagrant violation of the global rules-based order, to the suffering of our fellow peoples in the Global South, and to the abasement of human dignity that is on open display in Gaza and the West Bank,” Gandhi wrote.
The piece was shared on X by Congress leaders. While Mallikarjun Kharge called it a “stark reminder of how our current foreign policy has alienated our historical allies in Palestine, Iran, and the larger Middle East,” Rahul Gandhi urged India to “reclaim its independent foreign policy, uphold humanitarian values, and speak up with moral clarity on Gaza.”
