Shashi Tharoor, MP and Congress Working Committee member, has alleged that Israel’s response to the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7 is “disproportionate” as more number of Palestinian people have been killed in the past 19 days when compared with those who lost their lives in skirmishes in the region since 2008.
He was delivering a keynote address at an event organised by the Indian Union Muslim League on the Kozhikode beach on Thursday to express solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Mr. Tharoor said, quoting the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, that as many as 6,407 Palestinians and 300 Israelis died in the clashes in the region between 2008 and September this year. The number of those who died since October 7, however, was much more.
“While 1,400 Israelis died in the Hamas terrorist attack, many more were killed in Gaza when Israel responded to it. The response is continuing too. At the same time, a total of 101 Palestinians and one Israeli are dead in West Bank, which is an occupied area. In Lebanon, 52 Palestinians and four Israelis have died,” he said.
“Israel has termed its attack Operation Sword of Iron. Before this war ends, that sword will have to be dipped in the blood of how many children we don’t know,” Mr. Tharoor said.
The Congress leader also accused Israel of violating international agreements on war such as the Geneva Convention while pounding Gaza. He said hapless children and women were getting killed and religious places of worship, including an Orthodox church over 1,000 years old, were destroyed. The UN relief agency had said it was left with no or little fuel. “Hospitals are facing difficulties while attending to the wounded. There is no clean water, power, petrol or diesel. Israel is allowing very few trucks from Egypt carrying essentials to enter Gaza,” Mr. Tharoor said.
He ended his speech calling for a ceasefire by Israel and quoted the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, “The war will end, the leaders will shake hands, the old woman will keep waiting for her martyred son, That girl will wait for her beloved husband. And those children will wait for their hero father. I don’t know who sold our homeland, But I saw who paid the price.”
