Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday confirmed his country’s role in providing support to India during Operation Sindoor in May, when India attacked Pakistani sites under the guise of targeting “terrorists”.
The nuclear-armed rivals exchanged artillery, drone and air strikes in May, after India, without evidence, blamed Pakistan for a deadly attack on tourists in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam. The four-day confrontation came to an end when US President Donald Trump announced a surprise ceasefire.
In a post on X, Netanyahu announced that he met the Indian ambassador to Israel, JP Singh, in Jerusalem today, where the pair “discussed strengthening and expanding cooperation between Israel and India, particularly in the fields of security and economics”.
“Afterward, I held a meeting with a group of senior journalists from India and answered their questions,” the Israeli leader wrote.
According to Indian television channel NDTV, Netanyahu confirmed the use of Israeli weapons during India’s military operations in May, including the deployment of HARPY drones and the Barak-8 missile, which is jointly developed with India.
“The things we provided before worked very well on the field… we develop our weapons in the field and they are battle-tested,” the Israeli PM was quoted as saying by NDTV. “They worked fine and we have a pretty solid foundation.”
The channel added that Israel was one of several countries that supported Operation Sindoor. Kobbi Shoshani, the Consul General in Mumbai, said it was “essential” to send a strong message to the terrorists.
“That (Operation Sindoor) was an action of self-defence, and I’m very proud of this operation,” Shoshani was quoted as saying.
According to Indian channel News18, New Delhi deployed the HARPY and SkyStriker loitering munitions “to great effect” during Operation Sindoor, reportedly targeting Pakistani air defence and surveillance systems.
Over the last decade, India has imported military hardware worth $2.9 billion from Israel, including radars, surveillance and combat drones, and missiles.
In 2019, India struck what it claimed was a “terrorist training camp” in Balakot with Israeli-made Rafael SPICE “smart bombs”, though local residents in the area claimed nobody had been injured or killed.