The flight was bound for Gaza, Nehru’s plane was surrounded by Israeli Air Force, then know what happened?

India has played an important role in the United Nations Arab-Israeli peace efforts. Gaza, the site of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, had a strong Indian Army peacekeeping contingent under the auspices of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) from the 1950s to the mid-1960s. On May 19, 1960, an international incident occurred when Israeli Air Force aircraft intercepted a United Nations plane carrying Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was visiting UNEF in Gaza. The ship left for Gaza carrying Pandit Nehru. As soon as it reached Israeli air space. Israeli fighter planes blocked the path of this ship.

The UNEF Commander at that time was Lieutenant General Prem Singh Giani, who incidentally was the first Indian officer to be commissioned into an artillery regiment. He was also the first Indian officer to command an artillery field regiment. He was Commander of UNEF in Gaza from December 1959 to January 1964, before leaving for another UN assignment in Yemen. Nehru was visiting Gaza while returning from the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference. To land in Gaza, UN aircraft had to fly over Israeli territory for a while. This was a standard practice for UN aircraft flying into Gaza and the Israelis were aware of it. No formal notice was given in advance of any such regular flight. Since the impending visit of Nehru’s Indian military contingent was published in various newspapers in the Arab countries and Israel, the Israeli authorities were aware of it.

Archival documents of the Ministry of External Affairs show that two Mystere jet fighters of the Israeli Air Force had intercepted the UN aircraft carrying the Indian PM during the flight. As one UN observer said, Israeli fighters flew dangerously close to the prime minister’s plane and then moved back. It was also reported that after the Prime Minister landed, he flew twice near Gaza airfields. The record states that since it was a UN aircraft that was involved in the incident and since the Prime Minister’s travel arrangements were made by UN officials, the Government of India considered that it was up to the UN to look into the matter And he refrained from doing so.

The day after the incident, UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru explaining that the flight over Israeli territory was technically necessary to enable the aircraft to land at the Gaza airstrip and that the Israeli authorities were well informed about these conditions. Knew from. Hammarskjöld expressed deep regret over the incident, saying that UN personnel were not to blame. Lieutenant General Giani also wrote a report blaming the Israelis on this incident, in response to which Israeli Prime Minister Ben Gurion made sharp remarks at Lieutenant General Giani. The Israelis also claimed that four MIG aircraft were seen on Israeli military radar screens flying alongside the UN aircraft and because of this Israeli aircraft were tasked with intercepting the aircraft. The Israeli PM also told the UN Secretary General that the Israeli Air Force had no information about the people aboard the UN plane. The UN Secretary General rejected the Israeli Prime Minister’s criticism of Lieutenant General Giani and instead wrote to Nehru mentioning it and appreciating the spirit in which the Prime Minister had reacted to the incident. The records mention that there was no UAR (as Egypt was then called) air force escort for the UNEF aircraft carrying the Prime Minister to Gaza as reported by Lieutenant General Giani and that four MIGs were seen on Israeli radar separately. Were going to Al Arish airport.