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An Indian national was killed and two injured after an anti-tank missile allegedly fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon struck an orchard in northern Israel on Monday (March 4).
The Israeli Embassy in New Delhi wrote on X that Hezbollah had launched a “cowardly terror attack” on “peaceful agriculture workers who were cultivating an orchard at the northern village of Margaliot”.
Why were these Indian agricultural workers in Israel? And if the conflict is in Gaza, why are workers in northern Israel under fire?
Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has not been peaceful for many years. On October 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas raid in southern Israel, Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite political party and militant group, launched a barrage of rockets at Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian militants.
Since then, Israel has launched air and artillery attacks along much of the 120-km border, killing more than 240 people, including at least 22 civilians, Al Jazeera reported. According to the UN body International Organization for Migration, more than 87,000 people have been displaced from southern Lebanon since October 8.
Experts say Israel is determined to create a “buffer space” between its border and the Lebanese population — an effort to insulate itself from continuing Hezbollah attacks, such as the one which killed and injured Indian nationals on Monday.
Founded during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90), Iran-backed Hezbollah is driven by its opposition to Israel and resistance to Western influence in West Asia. It boasts an extensive security apparatus, political organisation, and social services network in Lebanon, and many of its overt goals are similar to Sunni hardline Hamas.
Israel, with its relatively small population, has historically struggled to meet its demand for labour, especially for blue-collar, manual work. Prior to the October 7 attacks, Palestinians and Arab migrants made up the majority of this work force, with some 80,000 Palestinians working in the Israeli construction industry alone.
However, after the attacks, Israel suspended the work permits of thousands of Palestinians, while many other foreign workers simply left the country amid security concerns. This triggered a massive labour shortage — which Indians are now filling.
Israel started to offer visas for employment in the construction and agriculture sectors in November 2023. About 800 Indians moved to the country by December, upon the issuance of the first round of visas, to work in the country’s agri sector, according to unofficial estimates by sources tracking developments.
An agri visa typically costs around Rs 4 lakh, including the fees that agents and recruitment agencies etc. charge, some workers from Kerala who are now in Israel told The Indian Express.
Most of those who travelled to Israel are from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh. The deceased, 31-year-old Pat Nibin Maxwell, as well as the two other injured Indians nationals, all hail from Kerala, and made their way to Israel to work in plantations. Recruitment in the sector, however, has now been paused due to the lean agricultural season in Israel.
But recruitment for other jobs is still ongoing, and thousands of Indians are thronging to get employed.
The presence of Indian workers in Israel is not new. Roughly 18,000 Indians were working in the country last October — with around 14,000 being caregivers for elderly Israelis.
In ageing countries such as Israel, nursing has long offered well-paying career opportunities for Indians. Although caregiver visas are usually more expensive than, say, agri visas, costing up to Rs 10 lakh, care workers also earn very well (well over Rs 1 lakh per month) and get a lot of benefits, including free food and accommodation, healthcare, and overtime.
During the ongoing conflict, care work is also much safer as workers are largely inside residences in highly-protected Israeli cities. On the other hand, agriculture workers often work right at the Lebanon border, and are thus under constant threat from cross-border attacks.
