India-Israel Ties Deepen as Gaza War Intensifies Debate Over Arms and Strategy

Under Narendra Modi, India’s ties with Israel have taken on a different character for a country that once championed the Palestinian cause and led the Non-Aligned Movement. Stanly Johny, an Indian foreign policy expert and the international affairs editor at the Hindu, said the shift is not limited to politics or diplomacy but extends to the strategic and defence levels.

The changing nature of India’s role was highlighted by a recent Amnesty International investigation, which found that India has become a key part of Israel’s weapons supply chain. While New Delhi was for years primarily a major customer of Israeli weapons, joint ventures and manufacturing partnerships have now made India a “significant contributor” to Israel’s weapons production, according to Amnesty. The investigation provides the most extensive account so far of the scale of India’s involvement since the war in Gaza began.

Indian companies, including state-owned enterprises, have delivered drone warheads, artillery shell casings, small arms parts and military vehicle components to Israeli military suppliers despite the substantial risk that these materials could end up in weapons deployed in Gaza, Amnesty said.

By examining publicly available shipment-level trade data, Amnesty traced hundreds of thousands of weapons components shipped from Indian factories to Israeli military suppliers between 7 October 2023 and 30 November 2025. The shipments included 390,516 small arms parts for military-grade weapons, 564,970 parts of explosive ordnance and 298 components of military vehicles.

Many Western nations, including Britain, have restricted or banned arms supplies to Israel over its conduct in the war, citing risks that the weapons could be used to commit or facilitate violations of international humanitarian law. The United States accounts for the overwhelming share of major arms transfers to Israel.

An independent United Nations commission of inquiry concluded in September that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Earlier this year, another commission found that Israel was continuing to commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children. Separately, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of committing war crimes.

Despite these developments, the Amnesty report has not triggered large-scale public debate or political backlash in India, apart from scattered media coverage. Johny attributed this partly to support for Israel among Modi’s voter base. He said there is a clear ideological confluence between Hindutva and Zionism. In rightwing circles in India and elsewhere, he argued, Israel is increasingly viewed as a bulwark against the expansion of Islam.

Hindu nationalists have long admired Israel, viewing it as a model of a nationalist state capable of asserting itself in a volatile neighbourhood. Author Pankaj Mishra chronicled this affinity in a 2017 essay, writing that his grandfather was among high-caste Hindus who saw Israel as an example of how to deal with Muslims “in the only language they understood: that of force and more force”.

The war in Gaza does not appear to have significantly shifted those views. A Pew Research survey published in June found that 32% of Indians viewed Israel favourably, compared with 28% who viewed it unfavourably. The figures contrast with declining support for Israel in several Western countries, including the United States, since the war began.

Modi has also cultivated a personal rapport with Netanyahu. In 2017, he became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel. Modi’s visit to Israel earlier this year came just 48 hours before Israel and the United States launched their attacks on Iran.

The optics of Modi hugging Netanyahu on the tarmac, combined with New Delhi’s noticeably muted response at the outbreak of the war, signalled where India’s political establishment stood. The position was also noted by Netanyahu in July, after US Vice-President JD Vance rebuked him by saying that the United States was Israel’s “only powerful ally” left in the world. Netanyahu responded: “We have some other friends, like a small country called India. It has 1.4bn people, and boy, do we have tremendous support there.”

The Indian government has previously declined to give a direct answer about weapons supplies to Israel. When asked in Parliament in 2024, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the information was not in the public domain and that exports of military products were guided by “national interest”.

Amnesty identified three state-owned Indian companies — Munitions India Limited, India Optel Limited and Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited — as suppliers of weapons to Israel. It said the exports could expose India to the hazard of “complicity in ongoing genocide in Gaza”.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal responded that India’s exports are governed by national laws and international obligations.

The strongest pushback has come from human rights activists, student bodies, trade unions, India’s left-leaning parties and the Congress party. The courts have offered no recourse. In 2024, a group of civil servants, activists and academics petitioned the Supreme Court, demanding that India suspend military exports to Israel. The court dismissed the case, ruling that the matter fell within the discretion of the executive.

“In India, you don’t see any anger towards the government for its relationship with Israel, despite the allegations the Israeli government is facing,” Johny said. He believes this reflects a wider stripping of moral concern from foreign policy debates in India.

Weapons are not the only thing India has sent to Israel during this period. Thousands of Indian workers have also travelled to Israel, in many cases to replace Palestinians barred from entering the country after 7 October 2023. Last year, the government told Parliament that more than 20,000 Indian workers in construction and caregiving had moved to Israel after an agreement signed in November 2023.

At the same time, India has strengthened its own arms supplies from Israel. Between 2021 and 2025, New Delhi was Israel’s largest defence customer, accounting for 29% of its total arms sales, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

For Johny, however, India’s growing closeness to Israel is beginning to carry a cost. The war in Iran threatens India’s energy security and could have wider economic repercussions across the Gulf, home to a large Indian diaspora.

India, he said, has to remain engaged with Israel, but it is also important for New Delhi to restore balance to its approach to West Asia and forcefully defend its own interests. The expanding defence, economic and strategic relationship with Israel therefore places India at the centre of a changing regional equation, even as the consequences of the Gaza war continue to shape international debate.