NEW DELHI — NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday welcomed a cease-fire in Gaza that is anticipated to allow the discharge of dozens of hostages taken by Hamas, and urged leaders of the highest wealthy and creating nations to work collectively to make sure the Israel-Hamas warfare does not broaden.

Hosting a digital assembly of Group of 20 leaders, Modi mentioned the hostages ought to be launched and humanitarian help expedited. India has the G20 presidency for 2023.

“Terrorism is not acceptable and civilians’ death is condemnable,” he said.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a four-day cease-fire in the war in Gaza — a breakthrough that will facilitate the release of dozens of hostages held by militants as well as Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and bring a large influx of aid to the besieged territory, officials said Wednesday. The truce raised hopes of eventually winding down the war, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israel.

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and China’s Premier Li Qiang represented their nations on the digital summit.

President Joe Biden attended the September G20 meeting in New Delhi that added the African Union as a member. Chinese President Xi Jinping skipped both the September G20 summit and Wednesday’s virtual summit.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attending the virtual summit.

Putin in his speech pointed to shifts on the global stage to argue that the world is going through a process of radical transformation with “new, powerful centers of global economic development emerging and strengthening.”

“Turbulence in the markets is increasing, chronic problems in the international financial sector, energy and food security are worsening,” he said.

Putin noted the criticism of Russia’s action in Ukraine but sought to deflect attention from it by pointing at civilian suffering in the Israel-Hamas war.

“Yes, of course, military actions are always a tragedy for specific people, specific families and the country as a whole,” he said. “And, of course, we must think about how to stop this tragedy.”

“The war and the loss of life can’t but cause shock,” Putin continued. “But isn’t anyone shocked by the extermination of civilians in Palestine, in Gaza today? Isn’t anyone shocked about doctors forced to perform operations on children and use a scalpel on children’s bodies without anesthesia?”

Modi urged the G20 leaders to push for effective implementation of various decisions made at their September summit in New Delhi. Those include climate financing, reforms of multinational development banks and work on the creation of a framework for ethical and synthetic intelligence in addition to creating a standard framework for digital public infrastructure.

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned the U.S. administration has requested Congress to extend World Bank financing by greater than $25 billion and Germany has pledged $331 million in hybrid capital that can be utilized by the World Bank to extend lending over the following 10 years.

Other points essential to creating nations embody various fuels like hydrogen, useful resource effectivity and meals safety.

Modi introduced the creation of a social affect fund with an preliminary contribution of $25 million to assist creating nations meet sustainable improvement targets. He urged different nations to affix the initiative.

“Artificial intelligence should reach the people and it must be safe for the society,” Modi mentioned. He invited all G20 member nations to attend a Global AI summit in New Delhi subsequent month.

India is selling itself as a bridge to the creating world and a rising world participant. Ahead of the G20 digital summit, Modi held the same assembly with 130 leaders of largely creating nations.

India’s G20 presidency ends on Nov. 30 and the baton is being handed to Brazil for 2024.

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Associated Press author Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report from Moscow.