New Delhi: India stayed away from the celebrations organised by the Israeli foreign ministry on Sunday to mark Monday's opening of the US embassy in the contested city of Jerusalem.

India has thus joined the majority in the global community that disagrees with the US move to shift its Israel mission from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in keeping with an election promise by President Donald Trump.

Only 32 countries participated in the celebrations, held amid mass protests along the Gaza border.

Relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem had been a longstanding demand of the Israelis, and Trump had announced in early December that this would happen soon.

Although India has bonded increasingly with Israel in recent years, New Delhi has more or less held on to its traditional position on the Palestinian question.

The Narendra Modi government has reaffirmed support for the Palestinian cause but avoids the mention of East Jerusalem in Palestine-related statements.

India's 50-year-old position has been that East Jerusalem - occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 - should be the capital of the Palestinian state as part of the two-state solution that much of the world is committed to.

After Trump's announcement in December, India had voted with the majority in favour of the United Nations General Assembly resolution rejecting the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.