Israel-Hamas war: Israel claims to destroy shelter used by Hamas leader linked to October 7 attacks
Workers from South Asia are heading to Israel, where labor needs have become more urgent since the Hamas-led attack in October.
The Israeli government closed border crossings from the West Bank, cutting off thousands of Palestinians from work, and many of the foreign workers Israel depends on to operate its farms and construction sector have left. Most of the approximately 30,000 foreign farm workers in Israel came from Thailand, dozens of whom came from Thailand kidnapped or murdered on October 7.
Thousands of people from India and Sri Lanka will be sent to Israel in the coming weeks, officials in the three countries said, as part of deals to supply workers mainly in construction, health care and agriculture. Both India and Sri Lanka suffer from it high unemploymentand officials said they have received thousands of applications for construction jobs in Israel.
Mukesh Ranjan, a construction worker in the northern Indian state of Haryana, said that despite the risk posed by the war in Gaza, he and dozens of others from his village had applied for construction jobs through a state government agency, which he said say has received more than 2,500 applications.
Mr Ranjan said if selected, he would use the wages to pay for better education for his two teenage daughters and to pay off debts incurred from losses on his farm.
“I will seize this opportunity,” he said.
Recruitment is part of it an agreement In May, a strike was struck between India and Israel that would grant permits to 42,000 Indian workers, Indian news media reported. About 34,000 workers would be in construction and 8,000 in healthcare.
About 10,000 Sri Lankan workers are already employed in Israel, mainly as caregivers in the healthcare sector. Bandula Gunawardena, a minister in the Sri Lankan government, said the country had signed an agreement with Israel in November to send more farm workers and that the first group had already traveled there.
The recruitment in South Asia is not intended to fill the void left by Palestinian workers, but is part of filling existing foreign labor quotas, Israeli officials said.
Inbal Mashash, the director of the foreign worker administration at Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, said the Israeli economy was under pressure due to the departure of foreign workers, the calling up of more Israeli reservists for military service and restrictions on Palestinians arriving from the Western entered the Jordan Bank.
“There is no doubt that the economy is currently going through something of a crisis when it comes to manpower,” she said.
Representatives of the Israel Builders Association, a private organization, said they were screening workers in India for construction jobs, and that screening would soon begin in Sri Lanka, where thousands have signed up.
Before October 7, about 80,000 Palestinian workers were employed in the construction sector in Israel, Mr. Pauzner said. They were joined by 18,000 foreigners from Eastern Europe and China, and another 200,000 Israelis.
Overall, the number of Palestinian workers entering Israel daily from the West Bank has fallen from 124,000 before Oct. 7 to roughly 8,000, said Shani Sasson, spokeswoman for COGAT, the Israeli defense agency that oversees policy for the Palestinian territories.
There is some resistance to the recruitment in India. The country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has grown closer to Israel, with which it now shares extensive defense ties but has also long supported Palestinian rights.
K. Hemalata, the president of the Construction Workers Federation of India, said she was concerned that Israel was using Indian workers to rob Palestinians. “We are absolutely against this,” she said.
But Ms. Mashash, from Israel’s immigration service, said foreign workers “do not replace Palestinian workers” whose work permits have not been revoked.
Johnatan Reiss and Pamodi Waravita contributed reporting.