Israel-Hamas War: 'Operation Ajay' Launched to Repatriate Indians; Netanyahu Forms Unity Govt

India on Wednesday launched a special operation to repatriate its citizens from Israel where a full-blown war has erupted since Hamas militants launched their onslaught on Saturday.

Nearly 3,700 people have been killed in the war since Saturday when hundreds of Hamas militants stormed across the border from Gaza and killed hundreds.

Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar made the announcement regarding the operation on X, formerly Twitter, and said the Government of India is fully committed to the safety and well-being of Indian nationals abroad.

Under Operation Ajay, special charter flights will fly out of Israel to bring Indians back home.

A 24-hour Control Room has been set up in the Ministry of External Affairs to monitor the situation and provide information and assistance.

Israel on Wednesday kept up its bombardment of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a political rival announced an emergency government for the duration of the conflict that has already killed thousands.

Here are Latest Updates on Israel-Hamas War:

• With the violence having already claimed thousands of lives on both sides, several countries including India, Argentina and Brazil have launched operations to repatriate their citizens, while others plan to do so in the coming days.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Unity leader Benny Gantz met at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv and announced an emergency government and war cabinet.
• Israeli soldiers sweeping battle-torn southern towns said they had found a total of 1,200 bodies, mostly civilians slain in the Islamist militants’ onslaught, the worst attack in Israel’s 75-year history.
• Gaza officials reported more than 1,000 people killed in Israel’s withering campaign of air and artillery strikes on the crowded Palestinian enclave, where black smoke billowed into the sky and entire city blocks lay in ruins.
• Israel has massed forces, tanks and other heavy armour around Gaza in its retaliatory operation against what Netanyahu labelled “an attack whose savagery… we have not seen since the Holocaust”.
• At least 150 hostages — mostly Israelis but also including foreign and dual nationals — were being held in Gaza by Hamas. The militant group has claimed that four of the captives died in Israeli strikes and has threatened to kill other hostages if civilian targets are bombed without advance warning from Israel.
• Israeli forces have retaken more than a dozen southern towns near Gaza after days of gruelling street battles that have left the bodies of at least 1,500 Hamas militants strewn in the streets.
• Washington had seen no signs that other regional foes of Israel were looking to join the attack by Hamas, said General Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a NATO meeting in Brussels.
• Israel’s war to “uproot” Palestinian Islamist group Hamas will deter militants from carrying out attacks across the world, the country’s Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel told AFP.
• Israel got a warning from Egypt of potential violence three days before Hamas caught Israeli forces off-guard in a large-scale attack, the chairman of the powerful US House Foreign Affairs Committee said Wednesday. “We know that Egypt has warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen,” Republican Michael McCaul said following a closed-door intelligence briefing for lawmakers on the crisis.
• UK foreign minister James Cleverly was forced to run for cover during a visit to southern Israel as he visited the country following Hamas attacks.
• The only power plant in the Gaza Strip, which is under Israeli bombardment and siege, shut down Wednesday after it ran out of fuel, said the Palestinian enclave’s electricity authority.
• At least 11 UN staff and personnel, as well as 30 students at UN schools, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Hamas militants launched their attack on Israel, a spokesman said Wednesday.(With AFP inputs)