Sonia Gandhi Slams Modi Govt’s Stony Silence on Gaza Genocide

In an article for The Indian Express, Gandhi also described Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel ahead of the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran as a “surprising strategic decision”.

The Congress leader said the spirit of the Indian nation requires raising its voice on behalf of Palestinians whose children are being brutally targeted and the national interest calculation requires India to respond to global public opinion against the Israeli regime’s “acts of genocide” in Gaza and its “brutal displacement and dispossession of thousands of Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank”.

“The Modi government’s continued silence cannot be explained rationally or morally,” he said.

In September 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry into the Occupied Palestinian Territories concluded that Israeli authorities had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Gandhi said in June 2026, the same commission, currently chaired by eminent Indian jurist Justice (retired) S Muralidhar, poignantly reiterated that Israel’s actions are aimed at destroying the existence of Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children.

“The 94-page report is a harrowing read, containing horrific details of the extent of Israel’s destruction in Gaza and the genocidal intent underlying its actions. At least 20,000 children were killed and 44,000 were injured, many for life.”

Gandhi suggested that the targeting of children was not accidental but a deliberate strategy.

“27 percent of those killed or injured were children, and most of the boys were found with bullets in the head and neck. 97 percent of schools in Gaza were destroyed,” he said.

Gandhi said healthcare infrastructure, including children’s hospitals, had been destroyed, leading to a 300 percent increase in miscarriage and birth complications.

He said that in the two and a half years since Hamas’s “despicable, horrific and completely unacceptable attack” on Israel, it has become clear that the retaliation of the Israeli armed forces and political leadership qualifies as “wanton cruelty and barbarism”.

“Senior Israeli leaders, starting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his senior cabinet colleagues, have called for the ‘total encirclement’ and ‘total destruction’ of Gaza, condemned the Palestinians as ‘animals’ who ‘have no right to exist,’ and described Israel’s success as ‘hundreds of thousands fleeing Gaza,'” Gandhi said. he said.

Despite this clear “genocidal intent,” he said the rest of the world feels remorse, stating that support for President Donald Trump’s government in Washington, D.C., has allowed the Israeli government to continue its “brutal campaign” against the Palestinians.

He said that the UN could not act with any determination due to American obstruction, but played an excellent role in documenting Israel’s war crimes through its own institutions.

He noted that leading powers historically associated with the Western bloc, including France, Britain, Canada and Australia, recognized the Palestinian state after decades of indifference to the Palestinian cause.

Gandhi noted that South Africa, a country with which India shares a long history of anti-colonial solidarity, dragged Israel to the International Court of Justice for violating the 1948 Genocide Convention.

He also noted that many European states have restricted arms sales to Israel, and many Latin American countries have reduced or severed ties with the country.

He said the International Criminal Court had even issued arrest warrants for Israeli political leaders.

Gandhi said that many countries with which India has close relations recognize Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.

“In the face of growing public outcry against Israel and the international community’s recognition of the unjust brutality inflicted on Gaza, India remains the lone voice of silence,” he said.

The former Congress chief said Justice Muralidhar’s report, which sparked renewed debate and activism against the Gaza genocide, was met with “stiff silence” by the Narendra Modi government.

This is no surprise; Recall that Justice Muralidhar was transferred from the Delhi High Court after he voiced the Delhi Police’s inaction in the face of provocative statements by BJP leaders ahead of the 2020 Delhi riots, he noted.

Gandhi said India has been historically exceptional among the countries of the world in terms of our commitment to post-colonial solidarity, national sovereignty and international peace.

“Today, we are exceptional in our continued indifference to the blatant violation of the global rules-based order, the suffering of our people in the Global South, and the degradation of human dignity openly displayed in Gaza and the West Bank,” he said in his article.

Gandhi also recalled the tragic story of Hind Rajab and said that he was a symbol of the indescribable cruelty of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

“A five-year-old girl who fled Gaza City with her family after Israeli forces fired 335 shots into their car, killing six family members and trapping her in a car with the bodies of her relatives as medics tried to rescue her. She was eventually killed along with two medics,” he said.

“The Modi government’s silence and inaction is not only morally reprehensible but also inexplicable from the perspective of national interest,” he said.

Gandhi said that India is shifting further towards Israel’s strategic orbit at a time when the world is increasingly moving away from it.

Gandhi said the prime minister’s visit to Israel under these circumstances and just days before Israel’s war against Iran and the killing of its top political leaders would go down in history as a “surprising strategic decision”.

“We have distanced ourselves from our historic allies in Palestine, Iran and the Middle East. We have distanced ourselves from the global public. And we have allowed Pakistan, of all countries, a state that has itself harbored and continues to harbor terrible terrorists, to step in to claim a mediation space – a role we can naturally claim given our historically friendly ties with all the players,” he said.

Gandhi said India’s sacrifice of strategic interests and morality has brought us nothing but the friendship between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is now under attack all over the world, including the USA.

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