New Delhi: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (January 7) and briefed him on progress made under the Gaza ‘peace plan’ conceived by the US, India said, with Netanyahu also writing that he looked forward to meeting Modi “in the near future”.In their second phone call in less than a month, Modi upon being briefed on the peace plan “reaffirmed India’s consistent support for efforts towards a just and durable peace in the region”, his office said in a press release.The two leaders, who referred to each other as “my friend” in X posts after the phone call during which they exchanged New Year’s greetings, had emphasised their “zero-tolerance approach towards terrorism in all its forms and manifestations” and underlined their “commitment to fight this menace”, Modi’s office said.They also “identified shared priorities to further strengthen the India-Israel Strategic Partnership” in 2026 and discussed “regional and global issues of mutual interest”.Netanyahu’s office said in a brief series of posts on X that the duo’s conversation “focussed on strengthening our two countries’ national security” as well as the “strength of India-Israel relations”.“I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Modi in the near future to continue these discussions in person,” he was quoted as saying.Amid reports claiming that Netanyahu had deferred a planned visit to India due to security considerations surrounding the November 10 Red Fort car blast, his office said he was “confident in India’s security under PM Modi” but confirmed that talks were ongoing over a new date. Indian official sources had denied any link with the explosion.A month later, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar visited Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where he met his opposite number Gideon Saar, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Netanyahu.The last time the Israeli prime minister was in India was in January 2018.He and Modi have projected a warm personal relationship and New Delhi has signalled closer alignment with Tel Aviv during their tenures in office.Modi was notably one of the first world leaders to express ‘solidarity’ with Israel after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terror attack killing 1,200 people – and triggering a two-year-long Israeli military campaign in Gaza during and after which over 71,000 Palestinians died – while India has abstained from at least four major UN General Assembly resolutions pertaining to the beleaguered coastal strip.While a fragile ceasefire has held in Gaza since the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s ‘peace plan’ went into effect in October, with the two sides also exchanging hostages and prisoners, the failure to find the remains of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili has been a stumbling block, as has been Hamas’s unwillingness to disarm as charted out in the plan.Hamas has only partially agreed to the plan.