RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Saturday that Hinduism respects all sects and that there has never been a dispute in India like the one that led to the ongoing Hamas-Israel war. The remarks came while addressing a program to mark the 350th anniversary of the coronation of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

“In this country there is a religion and culture that respects all sects and faiths. This religion is Hinduism. This is a land of Hindus. This does not mean that we reject all other (religions),” Bhagwat said.

He added: “When you say Hindu, you don’t need to say that Muslims were also protected. Only Hindus do that. Only India does that.”

“There is unrest everywhere else. You must have heard about the war in Ukraine, the Hamas-Israel war. There have never been wars on such issues in our country. The invasion at the time of Shivaji Maharaj was of this nature. But we never argued with anyone on this issue. That’s why we are Hindus,” the RSS chief said.

Israel bombarded southern Gaza with airstrikes early Sunday and said it would step up its attacks in the north of the enclave. Israel killed Hamas and Islamic Jihad “terrorists” in an airstrike on a mosque in Jenin in the West Bank today.

The overnight attacks came hours after Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari urged Gazans to move south out of the danger zone.

Israel began its “total siege” of the Gaza Strip following the cross-border attack on southern Israel by militants from the Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in a shocking rampage that has traumatized Israel.

Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday that Israeli air and missile strikes in response had killed at least 4,385 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, and that more than a million people had been displaced from the territory.

(With PTI inputs)