Amid Gaza war, first batch of 60-plus Indian construction workers leave for Israel to replace Palestinians

The first batch of over 60 Indian construction workers is going to Israel, Israeli envoy to India Naor Gilon said on Tuesday. Following the Israel-Hamas war, some media reports said the Israeli construction industry is looking at recruiting 100,000 Indian workers to replace 90,000 Palestinians.

New Delhi: Over 60 construction workers from India left for Israel on Tuesday, even as the West Asian Jewish nation’s armed forces continued military operations that resulted in the death of over 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7.

The Embassy of Israel in New Delhi arranged a farewell ceremony for the first batch of 64 construction workers recruited from India. Israel’s construction industry has been purportedly looking for workers from India to replace the Palestinians, who have been denied work permits since the conflict started.

A source in New Delhi said that altogether 1500 Indian workers would travel to Israel over the next few weeks.

“Today we had a farewell event from the first batch of 60+ Indian construction workers going to Israel under the G2G (government-to-government) agreement. This is an outcome of (the) hard work of many, including @NSDCINDIA,” Naor Gilon, Israel’s ambassador to India, said in New Delhi.

The workers were trained by the National Skill Development Corporation of India before being recruited to work in Israel

Gilon hoped that the workers would turn into ‘ambassadors’ of the great people-to-people relations between India and Israel.

After a missile fired from Lebanon killed one and injured two other Indians in northern Israel, New Delhi’s diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv early last month urged the country’s citizens in the West Asian Jewish nation to move to safer areas.