The National Security Strategy document should flag all major issues concerning security strategy and provide guidelines to concerned departments to work out suitable action plans. Since the global and regional geopolitical canvas is dynamic, the NSS document should be deliberated at length before formulation and should be reviewed periodically, recommends Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
The both governments recognise that a ground invasion is very likely and not telling Israel not to launch one at all, but rather hold off to try and see if additional diplomatic efforts can succeed.
'India understands the situation of hostages by just remembering what happened to Baby Moshe as he was held hostage during the 26/11 terror attack'
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Thursday pledged to stand with Israel in its "darkest hour" and welcomed the opening of a humanitarian corridor into Gaza as he held talks with the country's top leadership during his two-day visit to the Middle East aimed at preventing further escalation of conflict in the region.
A 20-year-old Indian-origin soldier was among 17 Israeli soldiers killed fighting in Gaza, according to the mayor of the town in southern Israel where the deceased had resided.
A Chicago-based man, Joseph M Czuba, aged 71, has been arrested and charged with murder and hate crimes after allegedly stabbing and killing a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounding his mother.
Israel on Friday pressed ahead with its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, killing at least four Palestinians, even as the militant group executed 18 suspected informers for the Jewish state following the killing of its three top commanders.
Israel on Monday unleashed more airstrikes on Gaza and shot down a drone used for the first time by Hamas militants even as international pressure mounted on both to end the week-long conflict that has killed 177 Palestinians.
'Egypt brokered a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, but Hamas routinely violated that ceasefire by launching rockets into Israel. On December 19th, Hamas announced an end to the ceasefire and soon unleashed a barrage of rockets and mortars that deliberately targeted innocent Israelis -- an act of terror that is opposed by the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people, President (Mahmoud) Abbas,' Bush said. More than 400 people have been killed in the latest attacks.
One looks upon the coming new year with foreboding as current wars in Ukraine and Gaza spill over and escalate and new ones erupt in incipient fault lines across the world, notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
'This was for our brothers and sisters in Gaza'
The new Samvat 2080 is viewed as a year of hope for industrial and precious metals. A key reason is the expectation of US interest rates peaking, followed by a reduction in the coming months. Regarding crude oil, its trajectory depends more on how the situation unfolds in West Asia.
Israel has drafted 350,000-400,000 soldiers for a ground operation in Gaza since the dastardly attacks on its southern communities on October 7.
Indian IT services company Infosys on Thursday said all its employees in Israel are safe. Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh said its employees in Israel are primarily locals but declined to comment on the exact staff strength there. The company further said it is "saddened" by the situation unfolding in the region.
Hamas on Sunday agreed to a 24-hour UN-brokered humanitarian truce after initially rejecting it that led to Israel resuming its military strikes in Gaza as the 20-day conflict killed 1,060 Palestinians and 46 Israelis so far, including an Indian-origin soldier.
'The question is, which is worse?' 'Is it worse that he would be resting in peace or is it worse that he's being held by these terrible people who have attacked and killed babies and raped women?'
Joe Biden, seeking a second term in the White House, stumbled in his first televised presidential debate with his predecessor Donald Trump, setting off alarm bells among top Democrats about whether the incumbent President can stay atop in the gruelling months ahead of the elections.
The Royal Bahrain Hospital in a statement on Friday described Dr. Sunil Rao's tweet, which he had subsequently deleted, as a violation of the hospital's code of conduct.
The announcement comes as the military conflict between Hamas militants and Israel continued for the fifth day.
'Never, not even once, has Kamala Harris said that she is Indian American. I know why.' 'From the Indian American community she can get maybe 1% percent votes. But if she says she's African American she gains about 20% votes.'
India on Thursday said it is closely watching the unfolding situation in the Red Sea, amid growing global concerns over Houthi militants stepping up attacks on several commercial ships in the region.
China has signalled that it will prevent India from assuming leadership of the Global South, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
"They (BJP) attack different communities, religions and languages. They spread hatred and violence in the country. They spread arrogance, lack of understanding and this is completely against the idea of India," he added.
Indian-American Republican leader Nikky Haley has endorsed her former boss Donald Trump as the party's candidate for the presidential election, delivering the message of unity after their bitter rivalry during the presidential primary.
If military power is all it would take to finish the menace of an awful terrorist organisation like Hamas, how come five Israeli wars in Gaza since 2003 have failed to do so? asks Shekhar Gupta.
Stepping up its offensive, Israeli forces on Wednesday hit about 200 targets in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip killing at least 17 people, triggering a retaliation from the Palestinian group which fired a barrage of rockets deep into the Jewish state in the bloodiest conflict since 2012.
'If this had happened anywhere else, Indians would have been desperate to leave. But not in Israel.'
The world needs to wake up to this new dimension of war at sea and be prepared to face the 'unknown enemy' who have the advantage of attacking at their choice of location and time, cautions Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
Hundreds of tailors from a local apparel unit in Kannur have been working tirelessly to get the uniform shirts ready for the Israel police force for the past eight years.
India is 'deeply concerned' at the deteriorating security situation and astounding loss of civilian lives in the ongoing conflict.
Modi said this is the time for peace and brotherhood, and time to move forward together.
The United States on Thursday (local time) evaded a question on whether Pakistan held prior consultations with Washington, DC before conducting retaliatory air strikes on Iran.
Amid the raging Israel-Hamas war, a group of opposition leaders, including MP Danish Ali and former parliamentarians Mani Shankar Aiyar and K C Tyagi, visited the Palestine Embassy in New Delhi on Monday to express solidarity with Palestinians.
Intensifying its targeted assassinations of militants, Israel's air force on Thursday bombed a house in Gaza killing three senior Hamas commanders among 19 Palestinians on the 45th day of the deadly conflict.
Senior Congress leader Rajmohan Unnithan has come under criticism over his remarks that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a 'war criminal' and should be shot dead without trial for allegedly murdering Palestinians in the Gaza strip.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned "in the strongest terms" the reported ceasefire violation by Hamas and demanded that an Israeli soldier captured in Gaza be released immediately.
A step away from nuclear weapons being used in conflicts, warns Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The country's largest IT services company TCS on Wednesday said it has 250 staffers in Israel and stressed that the ongoing conflict will not have any major impact on its business. The company said it is in constant touch with all staffers, and at present, the focus is their safety and to look at how they help the communities they live in. It has initiated business continuity plans wherever necessary to ensure that the customers do not get impacted, TCS chief operating officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam told reporters, adding that it does not expect any major impact of the war on its business.
Hamas described the move as a declaration of war with an aim to starve Palestinians to force them to accept Tel Aviv's demands.
Pakistan's ministry of foreign affairs said that the violation of Pakistan's sovereignty is "completely unacceptable" and warned of serious consequences.
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