New Delhi: Israeli authorities claim to have rescued 10 Indian construction workers from the West Bank after discovering that their passports was being used by Palestinians at checkpoints.
The Indian embassy in Tel Aviv stated that the “10 missing Indian construction workers” were traced to the West Bank and brought back to Israel by the Israeli government.
“While the matter is still under investigation, the Embassy is in touch with the Israeli authorities & has requested to ensure their safety & well-being,” the embassy posted late on X on March 6.
Earlier in the day, Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority (PIBA) issued a statement stated that its Enforcement and Foreigners Administration division, in coordination with the Israeli Defence Forces and the Ministry of Justice, led an overnight “rescue operation” for Indian construction workers in the village of Al-Za’im.
“Through a complex coordination effort, the workers were rescued from the village during the night and transferred at 2:30 AM by representatives of the Enforcement and Foreigners Administration to a secure location, where arrangements for their legal employment are being made,” the statement read.
According to Israeli authorities, the Enforcement and Foreigners Administration had received information that the 10 Indian workers were staying in Al-Za’im after being promised jobs by a local resident, who then confiscated their passports.
Stranded in the village for over a month without employment, the workers were unable to return to Israel without their documents. Their passports were eventually used by Palestinians to cross a checkpoint, where Israeli soldiers intercepted them, the PIBA statement said.
There are currently 32,000 Indian workers in Israel, of whom 12,000 arrived after the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, through both the government to government arrangement and private recruitment, according to an Indian government statement in parliament in December.
India and Israel had signed an agreement for supplying Indian labour in May 2023, but the first batch under this ‘G2G’ channel reached Israel in April 2024, as Israel faced an acute labour shortage in its housing sector following the suspension of Palestinian workers after the Gaza war began.
By early December 2024, Israeli authorities had recruited around 6,583 Indian workers for the construction industry through a bilateral framework agreement. Before the arrival of Indian construction workers, the majority of Indians in Israel were working as caregivers.
Two Indian nationals have been killed in the conflict – a 31-year-old Indian worker in a missile strike from Lebanon and a former Indian officer working with the UN in an Israeli attack on his vehicle in Gaza. Besides, three other Indian nationals were injured in two separate incidents.
