Indian killed in Israel; move to safety: MEA

Tribune News Service

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, March 5

The blowback from the Israel conflict hit India on Monday with the death of a 31-year-old from Kerala and injuries to two others in a suspected rocket and mortar attack by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group around an orchard on Israel’s northern borders.

Air India restarts flights to Tel Aviv

• First reported death of an Indian near Israel’s border with Lebanon in several years
• Air India restarts flights from Delhi to Tel Aviv after five months on a tri-weekly basis

All three youngsters from Kerala are understood to have arrived in Israel to work at orchards near the restive borders with Lebanon where work permits of Palestinians were suspended after the Hamas attack on October 7 last year.

An anti-tank missile hit a plantation in the Margaliot collective agricultural farm in the Galilee region in north Israel around 11 am on Monday, instantly killing Patnibin Maxwell (30) from Kollam, who had arrived in January. Bush Joseph George (31) and Paul Melvin (28), both from Idukki, who were also working on the farm, were injured and hospitalised, said reports and posts from the Israel embassy here.

This is the first reported death of an Indian near Israel’s border with Lebanon in several years. Maxwell is survived by his pregnant wife and a five-year-old daughter.

This was reportedly the seventh civilian death in the Israeli controlled part of the region where 10 Israel Defence Force (IDF) personnel have also been killed in attacks by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group.

India gave mixed signals about the desirability of its nationals being in Israel. It indicated that while most of the country was safe, the border areas were dangerous. An advisory by the Indian Embassy in Israel urged nationals to move away from the borders to safer areas in the country. Air India announced on the same day that the government had cleared the resumption of flights to Tel Aviv and the first one had taken off on Sunday.

A retaliation to the attack was underway and the IDF said it had shelled the launch site as well as struck a compound where members of the Hezbollah group had assembled.

The MEA’s assessment of the number of Indians in Israel has remained static at 18,000 since the October 7 Hamas attacks. While about 1,000 Indians, mostly students, have come back, confirmed reports have spoken of at least 10,000 Indian workers having left for Israel to make up for the shortfall in the farming, construction and hospice and domestic care segments.

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