Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday condemned the murder of two young Israeli diplomats in Washington, DC, “in the strongest terms” and said that “the perpetrators must be brought to justice.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues,” Jaishankar said.
“Thank you, dear friend!” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar replied via social media.
The Indian and Israeli foreign ministers were discussing Wednesday night’s killing of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, reportedly by a 30-year-old left-wing pro-Hamas activist named Elias Rodriguez.
Lischinsky and Milgrim, a couple on the verge of becoming engaged, were both employed by the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Lischinsky, a Christian with dual Israeli and German citizenship, had been working as a research assistant at the embassy for several years. Milgrim was Jewish. She grew up in Kansas and joined the Israeli Embassy in D.C. in November 2023.
A man identified as Rodriguez, a resident of Chicago, was spotted lurking outside the Capital Jewish Museum before opening fire on a small group of people who emerged from a reception for young diplomats held inside. Lischinsky and Milgrim were hit by the volley of bullets at close range and killed.
Rodriguez reportedly entered the Capital Jewish Museum to be taken into custody, chanting “Free, free Palestine” and dropping a keffiyeh, the scarf that has come to be associated with Palestinian terrorism. The FBI is investigating his ties with far-left and pro-Palestinian groups. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder on Thursday.
Israel and India have been developing a close friendship in recent years, including a military partnership. When India responded to a horrific attack by Pakistan-based terrorists this month, Israeli-made Harop “kamikaze drones” were prominent among the weapons they used. India is also a devoted customer for Israeli radar systems and precision-guided weapons.
The perpetrators of the attack, identified by India as an Islamist gang called Lashkar-e-Taiba, reportedly quizzed their victims by asking them questions about Muslim religious writings, and shot them dead when they could not answer correctly. One Muslim civilian was killed in the attack, a heroic pony-ride operator who attempted to subdue one of the heavily armed terrorists.
Israel strongly supported India’s response to the Kashmir atrocity. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “deeply saddened” by the “barbaric terrorist attack” on the Kashmir tourist haven of Pahalgam, and supported India’s right to respond.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Israel stands with India in its fight against terrorism,” Netanyahu said.
Pakistani officials were enraged by the alliance between Israel and India, denouncing their friendship as an “axis of occupation” and comparing India’s presence in the disputed Kashmir province to Israel’s “occupation” of the Palestinians.
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday called the Washington, DC, terror attack “deeply shocking.”
“Those responsible for this heinous act must be brought to justice. Safety and security of diplomatic staff is paramount,” he said.
The Hindustan Times reported India is planning to ask U.S. officials for more security for its diplomats and embassy in Washington. A high-level Indian delegation is scheduled to visit Washington in June, and the Indian Foreign Ministry is said to be concerned about threats to their safety by Khalistani separatists.
“The security of our diplomats is a sensitive matter. We are having a close look at the issue after what happened to the two Israeli embassy officials,” said one of the Hindustan Times’ sources.
India fired missiles at three air bases inside Pakistan but most of the missiles were intercepted, Pakistan’s army spokesman said Saturday. It’s the latest escalation in a conflict triggered by a gun massacre last month that India blames Pakistan for.
State-run Pakistan Television immediately said that retaliatory attacks were underway targeting “multiple locations in India.” Pakistan’s military says it targeted an Indian missile storage facility and airbases in Pathankot and Udhampur.
Pakistani army spokesman, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif, said in a televised address that the country’s air force assets were safe following the Indian strikes. He added that some of the Indian missiles also hit India’s eastern Punjab.
“This is a provocation of the highest order,” Sharif said.
The Indian missiles targeted Nur Khan air base in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Murid air base in Chakwal city and Rafiqui air base in the Jhang district of eastern Punjab province, according to the spokesman. There was no immediate comment from India.
Sharif said some of the Indian missiles also went into Afghanistan.
“I want to give you the shocking news that India fired six ballistic missiles from its city of Adampur,” said Sharif. One of the ballistic missiles hit Adampur, the remaining five missiles hit the Indian Punjab area of Amritsar.”
The Indian army said in a statement late Friday that drones were sighted in 26 locations across many areas Indian states bordering Pakistan and Indian-controlled Kashmir, including region’s Srinagar main city. It said the drones were tracked and engaged.
“The situation is under close and constant watch, and prompt action is being taken wherever necessary,” the statement said.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals have soared since an attack at a popular tourist site in India-controlled Kashmir left 26 civilians dead, mostly Hindu Indian tourists, on April 22. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for backing the assault, an accusation Islamabad rejects.
On Wednesday, India conducted airstrikes on several sites in Pakistani territory it described as militant-related, killing 31 civilians, according to Pakistani officials. Pakistan said it shot down five Indian fighter jets.
On Thursday, India said it thwarted Pakistani drone and missile attacks at military targets in more than a dozen cities and towns, including Jammu city in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan denied that it carried out drone attacks. India said, meanwhile, that it hit Pakistan’s air defense systems and radars close to the city of Lahore. The incidents could not be independently confirmed.
India and Pakistan have already fought three wars over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Both nations claim all of Kashmir as their own territory, but each controls only part of it. Another, northeastern portion of the region is administered by China, which has long been a point of friction between Delhi and Beijing.
New Delhi — A deadly terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s picturesque Pahalgam area in April has brought India and Pakistan once again to the brink of war. The nuclear armed South Asian neighbors have attacked each other this week with missiles and drones in a sudden flare-up of a decades-old feud that’s being watched with concern by leaders around the world.
The bitter rivals have fought three wars over Kashmir in the past, and once again they’re warning each other against any moves that could escalate the tension — and vowing to respond in kind to any such moves with tough military action.
After a week of intense clashes, air raid sirens blared in a couple Indian cities near the Pakistani border on Friday and authorities asked people to remain indoors. Officials said a woman was killed and four men injured in alleged Pakistani cross-border fire in the Kashmiri town of Uri, while all major airports and the capital city of Delhi were on high alert, with some schools shut and major landmarks evacuated.
Pakistani officials have accused India of killing at least 36 people this week, including 26 it says died in a Tuesday night missile attack on multiple locations, which Islamabad labeled an “act of war.” India called the strikes a measured response to the April terrorist attack, claiming it had killed 100 terrorists at camps and other sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
An Indian Army vehicle moves through a street in Uri, in Indian-administered Kashmir, as tension between India and Pakistan rises May 8, 2025.
Faisal Khan/Anadolu/Getty
The rivalry between the two countries goes back decades, and at the heart of the dispute lies the stunning mountainous region of Kashmir.
The Kashmir conflict explained
Kashmir is a Himalayan region dotted with snow-capped mountains, pristine lakes, and beautiful meadows. It was previously one of the many “princely states” of India, ruled by so-called maharajas, before India gained independence from British rule in August 1947.
That independence, however, has never been a simple matter. As it ceded its colonial power, Britain partitioned India into two nations: Hindu-majority India, and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
The migration of Hindus from the newly carved out Pakistan into India, and of Muslims from India into Pakistan, was marred by massacres and widespread sectarian violence. It is widely considered the deadliest partitioning of a nation in contemporary history.
At the time of partition, Kashmir was a Muslim-majority princely state, and its Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh, chose to remain independent of the two newly defined nations. But in October 1947, when tribesmen from Pakistan invaded Kashmir, the Maharaja sought India’s help.
India agreed to come to his assistance, but only if Singh would let India claim dominion over Kashmir as a precondition. The Maharaja agreed.
India sent its army to Kashmir, which drove out the Pakistani tribesmen and, for all intents and purposes, Kashmir became a semi-autonomous part of India.
India and Pakistan’s wars over Kashmir
Pakistan refused to recognize Kashmir’s accession to India, dismissing it as a fraud. The standoff led the two nations into their first war that same year, and it endured into 1948.
India asked the United Nations to intervene. The U.N. recommended that, after the full demilitarization of the region by both armies, a vote be held by Kashmir’s residents to determine its future.
That was never achieved, and in 1949, India and Pakistan signed a ceasefire agreement that divided hotly-contested Kashmir into two parts.
Both nations claim all of Kashmir as their own territory, but each controls only part of it. Another, northeastern portion of the region is administered by China, which has long been a point of friction between Delhi and Beijing.
In 1965, the tension over the region between India and Pakistan again erupted into a full-scale war. Thousands of people were killed on both sides. About seven years later, an agreement was signed that formally established a Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir, which still serves as the de-facto border between the two rivals.
In 1989, a heavily armed pro-independence insurgency took root in Indian-administered Kashmir, launching deadly attacks against Indian forces. India has long accused Pakistan of training, arming and backing those militants — a charge Pakistan flatly denies.
The three-decade insurgency has left tens of thousands of people dead.
Damage to a mosque is seen after Indian strikes in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, May 7, 2025.
Zubair Abbasi/Middle East Images/Middle East Images/AFP
Pakistan has consistently denied the allegations that it supports Kashmiri separatists.
In 1999, the two countries again engaged in a brief war, fought along the LoC in northern Kashmir.
As the insurgency continued, India maintained a heavy military presence in Kashmir, making it one of the most militarized zones in the world. Indian forces have killed hundreds of separatists every year in regular shootouts across and around the LoC, but they have not managed to stop the militants’ attacks.
In 2016, gunmen whom India said were based in Pakistan killed 19 Indian soldiers in an attack on the town of Uri. India responded by launching what it called “surgical strikes” across the LoC, targeting alleged militant bases. Pakistan denied any Indian strikes on its territory.
In 2019, another attack blamed on alleged Pakistani gunmen, on an Indian military convoy in Kashmir’s Pulwama area, killed more than 40 paramilitary forces.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, furious over the attack, ordered airstrikes against Pakistan, sparking retaliatory raids and an aerial dogfight in which one Indian fighter jet was downed.
A civilian, who according to local media was injured in a cross-border shelling near the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan in Poonch sector, is rushed to a hospital in Jammu, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, April 1, 2019.
REUTERS
Later that year, India’s federal government, under Modi, revoked Kashmir’s special status, lifting the partial autonomy it had enjoyed since 1947, which granted the region its own constitution and major decision-making powers.
Modi’s government faced criticism for the way it revoked Kashmir’s autonomy. A day before his government tabled and passed the bill in parliament, Indian forces launched a major crackdown in Kashmir. Internet, television and phone lines were shut down, and civilians were ordered to remain indoors. Dozens of people, including local politicians, were placed under house arrest as India flew more paramilitary forces into the region to maintain a security and information lockdown. Some of those restrictions remained in place for more than two years.
Pakistan objected to the move and vowed to “exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps.”
Over the following years, as India continued to bolster its security presence in the region, militancy waned and tourism returned to Kashmir. Modi’s government took credit for transforming the region from a hotspot for terrorism, into a hotspot for tourism.
But last month’s terrorist attack on Indian tourists in Pahalgam changed everything. It has once again put the two nations on a war footing – and the world on edge over the risk of another major conflict breaking out in already-tumultuous times, and between two nations with a long history of animosity, and nuclear weapons.
New Delhi — Pakistani authorities accused India on Thursday of a “serious provocation” as the nuclear-armed neighbors’ forces clashed in the disputed Kashmir region weeks after a terror attack on Indian tourists sparked sudden cross-border crisis.
Pakistani officials said India launched an attack with at least 13 drones early Thursday morning, all but one of which they said were shot down by the country’s own military.
“India has undertaken yet another blatant military act of aggression against Pakistan by sending Harop drones at multiple locations,” Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the Pakistani Army spokesman, said at a press briefing on Thursday, adding that the Indian attack, “continues, and the armed forces are on high degree of alert and neutralizing them as we speak.”
Security personnel cordon off a street near a site after an alleged drone was shot down in Lahore on May 8, 2025.
MURTAZ ALI/AFP/Getty
Chaudhry said Pakistan’s armed forces managed to “neutralize” 12 drones at various locations, including Lahore, Gujrawala, Chakwal, Rawalpindi, and one near Karachi.
“One drone, however, managed to engage a military target near Lahore partially,” Chaudhry said, adding that it had killed one civilian and wounded four Pakistani soldiers.
India did not immediately react to Pakistan’s claim about the drone attack, which came a day after India hit nine locations inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir with missiles. Pakistan said at least 26 people were killed in that missile attack, which it labeled an “act of war,” and that five others died in ongoing cross-border military clashes along the Line of Control that divides Indian and Pakistani-administered portions of Kashmir.
India launched rare national preparedness exercises on Wednesday, bracing for Pakistani retaliation to the missile attack, which the nation’s leaders have said they will take at a time and in a manner of their choosing.
Islamabad — India fired missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory in several locations early Wednesday, killing at least 26 people including a child, in what Pakistan’s leader called an act of war.
Pakistan said it had shot down several Indian fighter jets in retaliation as three planes fell onto villages in India-controlled Kashmir. At least seven civilians were also killed in the region by Pakistani shelling, Indian police and medics said.
People look at a part of an unidentified aircraft in Wuyan near Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on May 7, 2025.
Firdous Nazir / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Tension has soared between the nuclear-armed neighbors since an attack in which gunmen killed 26 people, mostly Indian Hindu tourists, at a popular meadow in the disputed territory of Kashmir, in some cases killing men before their wives’ eyes.
India has blamed Pakistan for backing the attack, something Islamabad has denied.
Kashmir, which is divided between the two countries but claimed in its entirety by each, has been at the center of tensions for decades and they have fought two wars over it.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned Wednesday’s airstrikes and said his country would retaliate.
“Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,” Sharif said.
The country’s National Security Committee met Wednesday morning, and Pakistan summoned India’s charge d’affaires to lodge a protest.
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a special meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security.
A source told the Reuters news agency Modi postponed a trip to Croatia, the Netherlands and Norway.
Girls whose relatives say were injured in a cross border shelling receive treatment in a hospital in India-administered Kashmir’s Uri on May 7, 2025.
Stringer / REUTERS
Concern mounts
South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman said it was one the highest-intensity strikes from India on its rival in years and that Pakistan’s response would “surely pack a punch as well.”
“These are two strong militaries that, even with nuclear weapons as a deterrent, are not afraid to deploy sizeable levels of conventional military force against each other,” Kugelman said. “The escalation risks are real. And they could well increase, and quickly.”
Stephane Dujarric, the United Nations spokesperson, said in a statement late Tuesday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for maximum restraint because the world could not “afford a military confrontation” between India and Pakistan.
Several Indian states planned civil defense drills later Wednesday, according to India’s home ministry, to train civilians and security personnel to respond in case of any “hostile attacks,” the ministry said in a statement. Such drills in India are rare in non-crisis times.
Students take part in an emergency mock drill as part of the nationwide civil defence mock drill at a school in New Delhi on May 7, 2025, as border tensions surged.
ARUN SANKAR / AFP via Getty Images
Indian politicians from different political parties lauded the strikes. “Victory to Mother India,” India’s defense minister, Rajnath Singh, wrote on X.
India’s main opposition Congress party called for national unity and said it was “extremely proud” of the country’s army. “We applaud their resolute resolve and courage,” Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
Details on the military action
India’s army said the operation was named “Sindoor,” a Hindi word for the bright red vermillion powder worn by married Hindu women on their forehead and hair, referring to the women whose husbands were killed in front of them.
India’s missiles hit six locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province, killing at least 26 people including women and children, said Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif.
Officials said another 38 people were injured by the strikes, and another five people were killed in Pakistan during exchanges of fire across the border later in the day.
Sharif said the Indian jets also damaged infrastructure at a dam in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, calling it a violation of international norms.
India’s Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted at least nine sites “where terrorist attacks against India have been planned.”
“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistan military facilities have been targeted,” the statement said, adding that “India has demonstrated considerable restraint.”
Pakistan said the strikes hit at least two sites previously tied to banned militant groups.
One hit the Subhan Mosque in Punjab’s Bahawalpur city, killing 13 people including a child, according to Zohaib Ahmed, a doctor at a nearby hospital.
The mosque is near a seminary that was once the central office of Jaish-e-Mohammed, a militant group outlawed in 2002. Officials say the group has had no operational presence at the site since the ban.
In a statement obtained by CBS News, Jaish-e-Mohammed’s chief, Maulana Masood Azhar, claimed India’s attack killed 10 of his family members and four close associates. He criticized Modi, saying, “This cruelty has broken all limits—do not expect mercy anymore.”
Another missile hit a mosque in Muridke, damaging its structure. A sprawling building located nearby served as the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba until 2013, when Pakistan banned the group and arrested its founder.
Last month’s attack on tourists was claimed by a group calling itself the Kashmir Resistance, which India says is also known as The Resistance Front and is linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba.
In Muzaffarabad, the main city of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, resident Abdul Sammad said he heard several explosions as the blast ripped through houses. He saw people running in panic and authorities immediately cut power to the area.
People took refuge on the streets and in open areas, fearful of what might happen. “We were afraid the next missile might hit our house,” said Mohammad Ashraf.
Chaudhry Ghulam Rasool, who lives near the mosque, told CBS News, “We were just about to go to bed when a huge blast happened. It was very big and terrifying explosions.”
Along the Line of Control, which divides the disputed region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, there were heavy exchanges of fire.
The Indian police and medics said seven civilians were killed and 30 wounded by Pakistani shelling in Poonch district near the highly militarized Line of Control, the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir between the two countries. Officials said several homes also were damaged in the shelling.
The Indian army said Pakistani troops “resorted to arbitrary firing,” including gunfire and artillery shelling, across the frontier.
Shortly after India’s strikes, aircraft fell onto three villages in India-controlled Kashmir.
Sharif, the Pakistani military spokesperson, said the country’s air force shot down five Indian jets in retaliation for the strikes. There was no immediate comment from India about Pakistan’s claim.
Debris from a plane was scattered across Wuyan village in the outskirts of the region’s main city, including in a school and a mosque compound, according to Srinagar police and residents. Firefighters struggled for hours to douse the resulting fires.
“There was a huge fire in the sky. Then we heard several blasts also,” said Mohammed Yousuf Dar, a Wuyan resident.
Another aircraft fell in an open field in Bhardha Kalan village, near the Line of Control in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Village resident Sachin Kumar told The Associated Press he heard massive blasts followed by a huge ball of fire.
Kumar said he and and several other villagers rushed to the scene and found two pilots with injuries. Both were later taken away by the Indian army.
A third aircraft crashed in a farm field in India’s northern Punjab state, a police office told the AP, speaking on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media. The officer did not provide further details.
Other nations reacting
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, President Trump called the strikes “a shame.”
“We just heard about it just as we were walking in the doors of the Oval,” Mr. Trump said. “I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for a long time. You know, they’ve been fighting for many many decades, and centuries actually, if you really think about it. No, I just hope it ends very quickly.”
China called for restraint from both sides following India’s strikes.
“China expresses regret over India’s military actions this morning and is concerned about the current developments. China opposes all forms of terrorism,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said in a statement. “We call on both India and Pakistan to prioritize peace and stability, remain calm and restrained, and avoid taking actions that further complicate the situation.”
Beijing is the largest investor in Pakistan by far, with a $65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project that spans across the country. China meanwhile also has multiple border claims disputed with India, with one of those claims in the northeastern part of the Kashmir region.
French news agency AFP reports that British Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told BBC Radio Wednesday the UK is “a friend, a partner to both countries. We stand ready to support both countries. Both have a huge interest in regional stability, in dialogue, in de-escalation and anything we can do to support that, we are here and willing to do.”
Moscow on Wednesday called for both India and Pakistan to show “restraint,” AFP says.
