Israeli Ambassador to India mocks Indian National Congress’s (INC) Member of Parliament (MP) from Kerala’s Wayanad, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, for her post on X in support of the people suffering in Gaza. Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar criticised Ms Gandhi Vadra, calling her post that slammed Israel for killing over 60,000 civilians, including over 18,000 children, deceitful and claimed that Tel Aviv has killed 25,000 Hamas operatives.
“What is shameful is your deceit. Israel Killed 25,000 Hamas terrorists. The terrible cost in human lives derives from Hamas’s heinous tactics of hiding behind civilians, their shooting of people trying to evacuate or receive assistance and their rocket fire (six),” the Israeli Ambassador to India, Mr Azar wrote.
What is shameful is your deceit. Israel Killed 25,000 Hamas terrorists. The terrible cost in human lives derives from Hamas’s heinous tactics of hiding behind civilians, their shooting of people trying to evacuate or receive assistance and their rocket fire. Israel facilitated 2… https://t.co/e3lSUwfmXH
— 🇮🇱 Reuven Azar (@ReuvenAzar) August 12, 2025
In her post, Mrs Gandhi Vadra wrote, “The Israeli state is committing genocide. It has murdered over 60,000 people, 18,430 of whom were children.”
The Israeli state is committing genocide. It has murdered over 60,000 people, 18,430 of whom were children.
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) August 12, 2025
It has starved hundreds to death including many children and is threatening to starve millions.
Enabling these crimes by silence and inaction is a crime in itself.
It…
Though Mr Azar, the Israeli Ambassador to India, opposed the INC MP’s views, his own claims reek of misrepresentation even according to the figures given by the Israeli government.
How many Hamas members did Israel kill?
According to the US government’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the strength of Hamas was between 20,000 and 30,000 before October 2023, when Israel launched its aggression on Gaza, following the Islamic resistance movement’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had claimed in November 2024 that his forces had killed over 20,000 Hamas members by then, including its top leaders like Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh.
Now, if Mr Netanyahu’s numbers are considered and then tallied with Mr Azar’s claims, it means in the last ten months, Israel has managed to kill 5,000 Hamas fighters. This translates into 500 Hamas operatives a month.
However, the available data from Gaza shows a very different picture.
While Israel had started its operation against Hamas following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in October 2023 by killing 8,005 people in that month, the tally reached 44,382 in November 2024, when Mr Netanyahu provided the 20,000 figure.
Considering Mr Netanyahu’s claim, the Israelis had killed 24,382 more people in Gaza, more than the number of Hamas operatives they had killed, during the same period. Who were these 44,382 people? Were they Hamas?
Now, considering Mr Azar’s claims, if Israel has killed 25,000 Hamas operatives by July 2025, when the number of victims killed by Israel in Gaza reached 58,573, which raises a question: who are the other 33,573 people killed in the besieged enclave?
Mr Azar has explained, “The terrible cost in human lives derives from Hamas’s heinous tactics of hiding behind civilians, their shooting of people trying to evacuate or receive assistance and their rocket fire.”
In this case, he is evading the core question—who killed the rest of the people?
If Hamas has killed the civilians, then why didn’t Israel prove that Hamas has committed a genocide of the Palestinian people using the Zionist state’s massive resources, influence on Western governments and media?
If he claims that these people, who are not Hamas, were used as human shields by the Islamic resistance movement and were killed as collateral damage, then it’s clear Israel has committed a major war crime against humanity.
In this case, if he is acting as an advocate for Israeli actions, he’s doing a poor job vis-à-vis the salary he’s earning for playing that role.
Mr Azar has no clarification on how the Israeli forces can evade the responsibility for killing nearly 40,000 people, including over 18,000 children, who aren’t Hamas by his own submission.
It’s not that the numbers are invented by the INC MP herself, but are recorded by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), which has no ties with Hamas.
If Israel believes that the United Nations (UN) is lying, the UNOCHA is peddling a false narrative, and now that even the West’s prominent powers are becoming vocal against the Zionist state based on these numbers, then why isn’t it walking out of the UN?
The Israeli ambassador to India has no clarification on how the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are holding Israel responsible for the crimes against humanity.
Moreover, the ICC has issued a warrant against Israeli leaders, including Mr Netanyahu, while the ICJ finds merit in the case. How would Mr Azar defend his regime apart from labelling the duo as “anti-Semitic”?
Question of aid
Mrs Gandhi Vadra has mentioned in her post that Israel is starving the civilians of Gaza.
“It has starved hundreds to death including many children and is threatening to starve millions,” she wrote on her social media post.
Responding to the criticisms, the Israeli ambassador to India highlighted Israel’s aid initiative.
“Israel facilitated 2 million tonnes of food into Gaza while Hamas tries to sequestrate them, thereby creating hunger. Gaza population has grown 450% in the last 50 years, no genocide there (sic),” he claimed.
International scrutiny and Palestinian journalists, who are attacked and killed by Israel, probably because Mr Azar and Mr Netanyahu also consider them as terrorists, have shown that Gaza is passing through a phase of artificial famine created by Israel’s blockade.
Ever since October 2023, Israel has blocked access to food, water, fuel and medical supplies to Gaza under the pretext of fighting Hamas.
The scenario worsened in May 2025, when Israel altogether stopped UN aid initiatives, claiming Hamas is using them and brought a controversial US foundation, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), to carry out aid distribution.
It has been repeatedly alleged by Palestinians, as well as contractors working with the GHF, that their aid distribution centres have become death traps for civilians.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) gunmen have been shooting at hungry people rushing to get food for their families from the GHF aid distribution centres.
While there are allegations that the food items provided by the GHF are of empty calories, which are not nutritionally beneficial for the people and need water, oil and fuel to be cooked, nevertheless, the people still rush for the boxes and are getting killed.
According to the UN, at least 1,400 people were killed by the end of July 2025 while they tried collecting aid. What makes this mission so humanitarian for Israel?
Mr Azar evades the question and refuses to see the elephant in the room.
MP slams Modi’s Israel policy
Mrs Gandhi Vadra’s social media post was directed at Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s government, which has remained silent on Israel’s aggression on Gaza and the massacre of thousands.
“It is shameful that the Indian Government stands silent as Israel unleashes this devastation on the people of Palestine,” Mrs Gandhi Vadra wrote, slamming the Modi government.
While India, since the time of MK Gandhi, had been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and supported its liberation movement, the situation has changed drastically since the time Mr Modi’s far-right Hindutva-incensed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ascended to power.
As the Zionist ideology of having a fatherland on the so-called “holy land” suits the Hindutva narrative peddled by VD Savarkar in the 1940s, and as the BJP shares a similar Islamophobic stance, Mr Modi’s government has been supporting Mr Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza.
While commenting on various incidents across the world, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) remains mute on Gaza and has tactically supported Israel in the UN by abstaining during crucial votes on the matter.
In international bodies like BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), India has refrained from joining others to condemn Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza.
It has even refused to accept that there is a genocide in Gaza and continues to extend its support to Israel under the guise of “fighting terrorism”, overlooking the crimes against humanity.
However, to balance its stance, Mr Modi keeps reiterating the two-state solution, which proposes a free Palestinian state without real sovereignty.
Mrs Gandhi Vadra has stoked the Hindutva camp with her post, which drew sharp reactions from the supporters and workers of the ruling BJP and its parental body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who remain staunch and unapologetic supporters of the genocide in Gaza.
While drawing sharp reactions from the RSS and BJP, the INC MP’s post on X has also drawn the attention of the Israeli administration, as the Israeli ambassador to India had to plunge into the fray.
His joining the social media battle has raised questions about how Israeli interference in Indian politics has been growing under Mr Modi.
Israeli ambassador to India’s criticism underlines political clout
When Mr Azar, the Israeli ambassador to India, criticised Mrs Gandhi Vadra for her post, which was essentially directed at Mr Modi’s government, he reignited the controversy over Israeli interference in Indian politics.
Ever since 2014, as India has relied more on Israel for weapons and technology, Israeli influence on policies has been more pronounced than ever.
Apart from defence ties at the government level, India’s burgeoning private defence industry has also developed collaboration with the Israeli defence industry.
The port-to-power conglomerate Adani Enterprises, owned by Mr Modi’s closest oligarch Gautam Adani, has particularly benefited from the India-Israel ties. Mr Adani’s defence venture has collaborated with Israel’s Elbit Systems to manufacture killer drones used by the IDF in Gaza. Mr Adani’s conglomerate also has ties with Israel Weapon Industries (IWI). The Adani-IWI collaboration manufactures guns for the IDF in India.
Moreover, Mr Modi’s push for the US-backed multi-modal India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) project allegedly promotes Mr Adani’s long-term business interests as the ports to be used for this project, from Mundhra Port in Mr Modi’s home state, Gujarat, to the Haifa Port in Israel, from where cargo will be shipped to Europe, are owned by his conglomerate.
It’s for the sake of the IMEC that India further promotes Israel’s causes and remains a mute spectator during the latter’s attacks on Lebanon in September last year.
Moreover, the Modi government has been accused of using Israeli spyware Pegasus to snoop on the Opposition, journalists and activists.
Amid this, when Israeli ambassador to India, Mr Azar, criticises a prominent politician from the Opposition, leaving diplomatic courtesy in oblivion, it highlights the Zionist state’s disturbing, growing clout.
The impunity with which Mr Azer operates in a non-Western country shows that the Israeli diplomatic officials no longer feel hesitant in confronting Indian politicians who oppose Mr Modi’s ties to the Zionist state.
Saffron camp lambasts Priyanka
The INC leader’s post also drew immense trolling from the Hindutva camp’s fanatics, who accused her of “appeasing Muslims”, a standard operating procedure for the RSS-led echo system.
That's Congress 😺 problem, majority Indian sides with Israel, and they are opposite the sentiment and then they wonder why they lost the election
— VOICE OF PAGANS (@voiceofpagans) August 13, 2025
Auntie, if you like Hamas so much, why don’t you become their next caliph and succeed Sinwar.
— Dr Rajesh Patil (@DrRajeshPatil20) August 12, 2025
Oh wait, they won’t allow a woman to head it
बाग्लादेश में हिन्दुओ पर अत्याचार होते ओर पश्चिम बंगाल और कश्मीर में हिन्दुओ पर अत्याचार होते है उस समय मुंह से एक शब्द नही निकलता
— अजय प्रताप सिंह (Ajay) (@iAjaySengar) August 12, 2025
Rather than questioning how the Israeli ambassador to India could cross the diplomatic line and slam one of India’s prominent politicians and accuse her of propagating deceitful narratives, the RSS-affiliated social media accounts were found justifying him and criticising Mrs Gandhi Vadra.
Ah YES, the “expert” on Middle East geopolitics who gets all her casualty figures from Instagram infographics and calls it “genocide” without bothering to check definitions, context, or even sources.
— Yash Keshari (@yashkesari84) August 12, 2025
The moral outrage is on full blast — but it’s surgically directed at India’s…
Israel is not committing genocide; Israel is fighting for its survival.
— Abhay Pratap Singh (बहुत सरल हूं) (@IAbhay_Pratap) August 12, 2025
Terrorists from Hamas and Hezbollah attack Israel every day and kill Jews.
Waging war against your enemy is not genocide.
Full support to Israel
This indicates a very dangerous trait, whereby the far-right, driven by their Islamophobia, sides with the Zionists unconditionally and thereby paves the way for Israel to have greater influence on Indian politics.
Gagging pro-Palestine voices
So far, Mr Modi’s BJP-led government’s police have launched a nationwide crackdown on those who have been showing solidarity with Palestine or opposing the Gaza genocide.
India is the sole democratic country where large-scale protests against Israel’s Gaza genocide couldn’t take place due to the government’s crackdown.
Activists of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement have also faced attacks from the BJP and RSS, especially in BJP-ruled Maharashtra and other Delhi, for opposing the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
As Israel hires more and more Indian blue-collar workers to fill the void created by the eviction of Palestinian workers since the October 7th attacks, the BJP takes pride in the economic exchanges as it’s creating jobs for a few thousand working-class members in the Hindi belt, who belong to the BJP’s core voter base.
Citing the economic gains and defence ties, and Israel’s rhetorical support to India’s cause in fighting militancy in Jammu & Kashmir, the BJP attempts to gag all criticism of the Zionist state, its critics argue.
Earlier, MP Assauddin Owaisi had come under fire for raising a pro-Palestine slogan during his swearing-in, and Mrs Vadra Gandhi was trolled for carrying a tote bag to the Parliament which had “Palestine” inscribed on it. The RSS and BJP workers called her “anti-Hindu” for supporting Palestine.
In July, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] was slammed by the Bombay High Court for seeking permission to hold a rally against the Gaza genocide. The Bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Gautam Ankhad told the CPI(M) to “show patriotism for the citizens of our own country first” in its order.
The court later allowed the CPI(M) to hold the rally in August conditionally.
As the anti-Israel movements bring the BJP’s wrath, it indicates a shrinking democratic space within the country under Mr Modi’s far-right government and how its growing proximity with Mr Netanyahu is helping the Zionist forces to have greater influence over Indian political discourse.
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