“It’s been very tragic conflict”: Shashi Tharoor on one-year anniversary of Israel-Hamas war

New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor termed the October 7 attacks on Israel last year, as a “deeply tragic” incident, but also highlighted that Israel, in its right to self-defence, has gone on to kill 41,000 people in Gaza and there is an immediate need for a ceasefire.

Citing Mahatma Gandhi’s quote ‘An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind’, he said that the whole region appears to have been blinded after being battered by the conflict.

Speaking to ANI, on the anniversary of the October 7 attacks, Tharoor said, “It’s a very, serious matter. What happened on October 7 a year ago was deeply tragic, 1200 people were killed, mainly innocent civilians, and 200 were kidnapped with hostages.”

“But subsequently, the reaction has been in many ways, just as bad or even worse, because whereas Israel would be said to be exercising the right of self-defence, initially, subsequently, it has, it has gone to the extent of 41,000 lives lost, most of the population of Gaza displaced, the terrible destruction of that entire area and, of course, large numbers of schools, hospitals, health care centres, mosques, all sorts of things have been destroyed. It’s been a very tragic conflict,” he added.

He further said that no one expected last year that the war would go on for a full year while urging the Union government to call for a ceasefire as soon as possible. He also raised concerns over the war expanding towards Lebanon.

“I think, in all fairness, this time last year, none of us expected to see a war going on for a full year. All we can do is join the government in calling for a ceasefire as soon as possible. We now instead see the widening of the war northwards towards Lebanon, where, again, there have been some successes on the Israeli part. But again, a lot of civilian lives also appear to be lost, and in the process of being lost, as well as a lot of accompanying devastation,” the Congress leader said.

“Mahatma Gandhi had it right from the very beginning. Then ultimately, what we have to do is stop settling our differences by resorting to violence that an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. And certainly, the whole region appears to have been blinded these days by what’s been going on,” he added.

Hamas launched a massive terror attack against Israel on October 7 last year, killing over 1200 people and holding over 250 as hostages, out of whom around 100 are still in captivity.

In response, Israel launched a strong counter-offensive, targeting Hamas units in the Gaza Strip. However, the mounting civilian toll has raised concerns over the humanitarian situation in the region. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Being asked about Israel’s decision to ban United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country, by declaring him “persona non grata,” Tharoor said the move is “slightly strange” and “somewhat extreme.’

“Peculiar thing, if you’re a member of a club, would you tell the head of the club, the chief executive of the club, not to come to you, not to come to your home? It’s a slightly strange stand to take, and I would say a somewhat extreme stand. The Secretary-General, in any case, was not planning a visit to Israel, as far as I know. But the fact is that he has to speak for all the member states. He doesn’t speak just for one. And when there is a conflict going on, to call for that conflict to be ended sooner rather than later, is not an unreasonable stand to take,” he said.

Speaking on External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s upcoming visit to Pakistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, Tharoor said that the Foreign Minister is going there for a multilateral meeting and there is no need to read too much into it.

He also emphasised that Jaishankar has himself stated that he won’t be having any bilateral meetings during his visit.
“He’s the first Indian Foreign Minister to set foot in Islamabad in nine years. He’s going for a multilateral meeting. If the same meeting was taking place somewhere else, he would have gone. I don’t think he’s going for bilateral discussions. He has told us publicly that he’s not going for bilateral discussions. So I think that we shouldn’t read too much into it. The meeting happens to be taking place in Pakistan. It is not an India-Pakistan meeting. It’s a meeting of half a dozen or 910 countries,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.

“So in that context, he’s there to speak as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. I don’t think we can read more into it than that. But of course, when an Indian Foreign Minister goes to Pakistan, the Pakistanis could use the opportunity to send whatever signals they wish to send. I imagine that is up to them. But he is not there, as he has made very clear, he is not there to initiate any conversations on the bilateral,” he added.

Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government meeting in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on October 15-16.

Pakistan, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), is scheduled to host the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) in Islamabad in October this year.