A group of developing countries including India on Monday condemned Israel’s military operation on Rafah in southern Palestine, The Wire reported.
The foreign ministers of the expanded BRICS grouping that met in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod expressed concern over Israel’s ‘disregard’ of orders of the International Court of Justice.
At the meeting India was represented by secretary (economic relations), Dammu Ravi as the new cabinet was yet to assign portfolios to ministers at the time.
India is one of the founder members of the group alongside Brazil, Russia and China and South Africa.
The grouping was expanded last year to include Egypt, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia and they participated in Monday’s meet.
India had previously called for peace in Gaza but refused to condemn Israel's attacks openly, according to the report.
However, the joint statement issued expressed concern at the increasing attacks in Rafah saying: The Ministers further condemned the Israeli military operation in Rafah and its ramifications that directly impact the civilian lives, especially in view of the high density of Palestinian civilians in this location, and the humanitarian catastrophic results due to the suspension of the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side”.
Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages into Gaza on October 7, triggering the war in Gaza which killed more than 36,000 people in over nine months.
Continuing its offence, Israeli forces last month launched attack on Rafah claiming that is the last stronghold of Hamas.