Netanyahu invites PM Modi to light torch with Indian pilot Smit Machchhar at Israel Independence Day celebrations | Today’s news

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he had spoken to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and invited him to light the torch alongside brave Indian pilot Smit Machchhar on Israel’s Independence Day.

In a post on X, the Israeli prime minister also said that PM Modi appreciated the “strong, long-standing ties” between the two countries.

“I spoke to my friend, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and invited him to light the torch alongside the brave Indian pilot on Israel’s Independence Day,” said Netanyahu, who is in the middle of a tight re-election race.

“Modi thanked me for the invitation and said that on the ground and in the air, India and Israel are fighting terrorism together,” he wrote in Hindi and Hebrew.

Modi traveled to Israel in February, his second visit to the country in nine years. The India-Israel relationship was elevated to the level of a strategic partnership during his first visit to Tel Aviv in July 2017.

Earlier this month, Israeli President Isaac Herzog invited Indian pilot Machchhar, who fended off an attack by his co-pilot in the cockpit of a Tel Aviv-bound flight, to Israel to honor him with the Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism.

Machchhar was injured when he tried to stop his co-pilot in an alleged attempt to hijack flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30. The flight was carrying 174 passengers.

Despite being seriously injured, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door, allowing the passengers and crew to overpower the co-pilot and avert a possible disaster. The plane made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. The passengers arrived safely in Israel later that day.

Hailed as a “hero” by Modi and Netanyahu for his courage, Machchhar is being treated at a hospital in the United Arab Emirates.