A flight carrying the first batch of Indians, who were stranded in Israel amid the ongoing war, landed in New Delhi under ‘Operation Ajay’ on Friday morning.
The latest Israel-Palestine war, ignited by a wide-ranging attack by the militant group Hamas on Israel, has already claimed thousands of lives on both sides.
The immediate trigger was Hamas militants firing thousands of rockets and sending fighters — through land, air and sea — into Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip during a major Jewish holiday (Simchat Torah) in a deadly offensive branded “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”.
Israel has been responding to Saturday’s attack with a massive bombardment of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “crush and destroy” Hamas.
Palestinians says palastines are paying the price in strikes on Gaza, a small coastal strip of land (140 square miles) packed with 2.3 million residents, which has been blockaded for more than 15 years.
A spokeswoman for Gisha, an Israeli human rights group, warned that the “Israeli decisions to cut electricity, fuel, food and medicine supplies” would severely affect Palestinians.
The conflict is expected to continue to escalate.
