Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday acknowledged his country’s role in providing support to India during the conflict with Pakistan in May, when the latter illegally attacked multiple cities in Pakistan, including Muridke and Bahawalpur, a media report has stated. 

 

The Israeli Premier, in a post on X, announced that he met the Indian ambassador to their country, JP Singh, in Jerusalem, where the duo “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,” Netanyahu added.

 

He confirmed the use of Israeli weapons during India’s confrontation with Pakistan in May, including the deployment of HARPY drones and the Barak-8 missile, which is jointly developed with New Delhi, according to an Indian news channel.

 

“The things we provided before worked very well on the field… we develop our weapons in the field and they are battle-tested,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying by the channel. “They worked fine and we have a pretty solid foundation.”

 

Reports suggest that New Delhi has imported military hardware worth $2.9 billion from Tel Aviv over the last decade, including radars, drones, and missiles. 

 

Israel is the fourth largest supplier of military hardware to India over the last decade, followed by Russia ($21.8 billion), France ($5.2 billion), and the US ($4.5 billion).

 

Following the April 22 Pahalgam incident in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), New Delhi accused Islamabad of orchestrating the attack, a claim Pakistan firmly denied and offered a transparent investigation into the incident.

 

New Delhi, while breaching the sovereignty of Pakistan, launched missiles into the country in May, leading the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to shoot down six of India’s fighter jets, including Rafales. Then, the nuclear-armed rivals exchanged artillery, drone and air strikes.

 

The four-day confrontation came to an end when United States (US) President Donald Trump announced a surprise ceasefire on his Truth Social account on May 10.