An Indian firm is terminating a longstanding contract to make uniforms forthe Israeli police, telling AFP on Friday that it had made a “moraldecision” in light of the war in Gaza.
Maryan Apparel in the southern state of Kerala said it had supplied around100,000 uniforms to Israel’s police force for every year since 2015.
“It is a moral decision,” the company’s managing director Thomas Olickaltold AFP. Olickal said in a Wednesday statement that a strike on a hospitaland the “loss of thousands of innocent lives” in the conflict had promptedthe decision.
Israelis and Palestinians have traded blame for Tuesday’s deadly strike onthe Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City.
Global leaders have condemned the strike and protests have erupted acrossthe Muslim world with stark disagreement over the toll and who isresponsible.
Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas accused Israel of hitting thehospital during its massive bombing campaign, and the Hamas-run healthministry in Gaza has put the death toll at 471, though that number iscontested.
Israel’s military has blamed a misfired rocket on another group, IslamicJihad – a version of events backed by the United States, whose intelligencecommunity has estimated between 100 and 300 people were killed.
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Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7 andkilled at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians who were shot, mutilated, orburnt to death on the first day of the raid, according to Israeliofficials. Israel says around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in clashesbefore its army regained control of the area under attack.
More than 3,785 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed acrossGaza in relentless Israeli bombardments in retaliation for the attacks byHamas, according to the latest toll from its health ministry in Gaza.
Olickal told AFP his firm will fulfill its existing commitments to Israel,which end in December but will not take new orders.
“We are okay resuming business with them after peace is restored,” addedOlickal, who employs around 1,500 people at his firm.
The company has also supplied uniforms to the Philippine Army and togovernment officials in Saudi Arabia. -APP/AFP