External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said that whatever the rights and wrongs in the whole conflict between Israel and Palestine, the underlying fact is that the Palestinians have been denied their rights and homeland.

“How different pulls and pressures can be. On one hand, what happened on October 7 was terrorism. On the other hand, nobody would countenance the death of innocent civilians. Countries may be justified in their own minds in responding, but you cannot have a response that…every response must take into account something called international humanitarian law,” Jaishankar said.

“The fact is whatever the rights and wrongs of the issue, there is underlying issue of the rights of the Palestinians and the fact that they have been denied their homeland,” the EAM added.

Addressing the Indian community in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jaishankar also spoke about India’s position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and said there are “no winners of a conflict”.

“We have also been the country who have the opportunity to talk to the Russians very frankly and bluntly on this (Ukraine) issue on different aspects. You know, others have used us to pass messages,” he said. “And by the way, the same thing applies when it comes to the Gaza-Israel conflict as well.”

“We took the position from the start, that you’re not going to get a solution to this conflict on the battlefield,” the EAM added.