Blast rattles Israeli embassy in India; ‘abusive’ letter to envoy said found nearby
No injuries in explosion, which comes amid rising threats to Israeli and Jewish targets abroad; Israeli security officials, Indian police working together on investigation
An explosion occurred near the Israeli embassy in New Delhi on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
There were no injuries as a result of the blast.
Indian news networks said that a letter addressed to the Israeli ambassador was found close to the scene of the explosion. The Indian Express reported that the letter was typed and “abusive.” No further details were given.
The report said investigators were working to establish if there was a connection between the letter and the explosion.
The Foreign Ministry said Israeli security officials were working with local Indian authorities on the investigation.
In an interview with Indian television, embassy spokesman Guy Nir said staff heard the explosion from within the building.
Delhi Fire Service received a call of a blast near the Israel Embassy in the Chanakyapuri area this evening.
"So far nothing has been found at the location," says Atul Garg, Director, Delhi Fire Services pic.twitter.com/Ipd23kciBS
— ANI (@ANI) December 26, 2023
“Around 5:08 [p.m.], we heard a blast. We believed it to be close and later we found out it was in close proximity to the embassy,” Nir said. “We have the Delhi police and our security team over there investigating the situation.”
Deputy Ambassador to India Ohad Nakash Kaynar told Asian News International that Israeli security teams “are working in full cooperation with local Delhi security and they will investigate the matter further.”
In 2021, a blast outside Israel’s embassy in New Delhi damaged cars but caused no injuries, in an attack India has said was carried out by the Quds Force branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In February 2012, the wife of the Israeli military attaché was injured in a car bomb attack in New Delhi.
Indian police concluded that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind the bombing, one of a series of attempted attacks against Israeli targets around the world attributed to Iran during that period.
Tuesday’s explosion came a day after a senior officer in the IRGC was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Iranian media reported.
According to the semi-official Iranian Tasnim news agency, Brig. Gen. Razi Mousavi was killed in a strike in the Damascus suburb of Sayeda Zeinab.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi vowed that Israel “will certainly pay for this crime.”
The Israel Defense Forces’ top spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, declined to comment on the reports during a press conference on Monday evening. While Israel’s military does not, as a rule, comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed terror groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country, over the last decade.
Earlier this month, the National Security Council reiterated its recommendation that Israelis reconsider all travel abroad and called on those who do need to travel overseas to avoid outward displays of their Jewish and Israeli identities amid rising antisemitism around the world as Israel fights the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
