‘Constantly Under Fear:’ Indians Living In Israel Describe Life As War Rages On

Days filled with tension, sadness, shock and grief is how Indian citizens and Jewish Indians describe their lives in Israel after the country began its bombing campaign of Gaza in retaliation to the unprecedented Hamas attack.

The wailing of sirens alerting them to run for shelter has now become an everyday occurrence, but they still express confidence in the Israeli army’s ability to keep them safe.

Israel today is home to thousands of Jews of Indian-origin and Indian citizens. Waves of immigration into Israel from India began in the 1950s and 60s, leading to about 85,000 Jews of Indian origin calling Israel their home today. There are also about 18,000 Indian citizens living in Israel, many of whom work as caregivers responsible for the care of Israeli elders. A number of Indians are also living in Israel as students or working as businessmen, diamond traders, IT professionals and so on.

More than 200 Bnei Menashe people, a small Indian-Jewish community in Israel, have also reportedly heeded the call to duty and are on the front lines serving in the Israel Defense Force (IDF).

Jacqueline Daniel Solomon, 47, originally from the Indian city of Mumbai, told International Business Times that she has been living in Israel for more than two and a half decades.

“I am a Jewish Indian living in Israel [with] 2 teenage daughters, one serving in the army. Life in Israel has been good as the government and the nation has treated us good and given us both the moral and financial support needed in the initial months of aliya (migration to israel),” Solomon said.

“Never in my past 26 years [have] I thought I was in danger,” she added.

While conflagrations of violence have erupted on many occasions in the past, the Hamas attack was a flash point that Indians describe as being “different” from their past experiences in the West Asian country.

“Since we arrived in Israel in 1970, we had gone through many wars and conflicts, but this time it’s completely different,” said Zipora Meir, who was born in the Indian state of Kerala before her family migrated to Israel.

Soma Ravi, a 47-year-old from the Indian state of Telangana, said he moved to Israel as a caregiver in 2006, and has been treated like a family member by his employer for nearly 18 years.

The sound of sirens warning residents about missiles is one that Ravi is used to by now, having heard it several times over the past years.

When sirens blared on Oct. 7, he went into the safety room as he normally does, completely unaware of the impending stop-the-press headlines that would soon take over the news.

“We are about 80 km (nearly 50 miles) away. On 7th October, in the morning, we got warning sirens about rocket missiles. We have been seeing [sirens] like this coming for the past several years, so we thought it would be enough to go to the safety room,” Ravi said. “But we were shocked when we understood that more than 1000 Hamas people came in.”

“It would be an understatement to say we fear for ourselves. It is frightening to realize that Hamas’s rockets have range to reach not only us but Jerusalem and some parts of the north,” added 55-year-old Isaac Thangjom, who stayed in Israel from 1997-2000 and then returned in 2008 to settle there for good with his wife and daughter.

Thangjom is also the executive director of Degel Menashe, an organization that works to assist the B’nei Menashe communities in Israel and India.

“We live in a Tel Aviv suburb. It’d be about a little over 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) as a crow flies, far enough to escape Hamas’s onslaught on the 7th morning but not far enough to escape their rockets,” Thangjom told IBT about the Hamas attack that triggered the ongoing flare-up.

Israel, which has the Middle East’s most powerful army and intelligence capabilities that are among the best in the world, was caught completely off guard when Hamas forces used bulldozers, hang gliders and motorbikes in their multi-pronged ambush on Saturday, Oct. 7.

“Being a Sabbath, Saturday is a holiday in Israel. It was all normal on Friday; we were celebrating the Festival of Tora with family members,” Meir recalled. “But at 6:25 Saturday morning, everything turned upside down with the voice of sirens all around Israel. We woke up in panic.”

“We are 40 km (around 25 miles) north from where Hamas attacked,” Solomon said. “We heard the sirens on that horrific Saturday morning and thought it was either a mistake or something temporary that will begin. Slowly, WhatsApp and Telegram channels started flooding with terrible images that made it clear we are going through horror and are on the onset of a long war … [We] went running from our living room to the shelter room and were glued to TVs and phones to see how this is going to end, if at all.”

“We heard the first rocket siren a little after 6 a.m. that day,” said Thangjom. “We spent the rest of the day and night running to the shelter whenever the sirens wailed. It has continued to this day but thankfully with less frequency.”

Meir said their lifestyle has now gone back to what it was like during the COVID period. She said most people are working from home, while children are not going to schools.

When it comes to shopping, she said they look for outlets that are closest to the shelters, in case of emergencies or when sirens blare during the day.

“No doubt there is fear but we have no choice but to carry on with life as much as possible,” she said.

“Past couple of weeks have been tense, sad, grieving and shocked. We are alarmed by any loud noise around and constantly under fear when the next siren will go and [we] have to run for shelter,” Solomon said. “At the same time we are slowly beginning to live a normal life by going to work, schooling on zoom and going out to meet family and friends as much as possible.”

Naveen Sulla, a 44-year-old caregiver from Telangana who has been working in Israel for about eight years, said he had felt safe because of Israel’s iron dome. But, he noted there has still been a sense of fear in the past two weeks.

“In the last two weeks, we are feeling insecure… they are sending rockets every day,” Sulla told IBT, adding he worked in the Israeli city of Yavne, about 50 km away from Gaza.

“In my place, everyday rockets come,” Sulla added.

As the Israel-Hamas war rages on, deaths are mounting as Israeli troops now conduct “targeted raids” inside Gaza. Around 229 people are currently being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials said.

Nearly three weeks have passed since Israel began pummeling Gaza, causing the humanitarian crisis to deepen as neighborhoods are left in rubble and hospitals are struggling to treat the thousands of wounded Palestinians amidst dwindling resources.

At the moment, there appears to be no end in sight to the ongoing conflict. But Thangjom believes Gaza “can become an oasis for peace and prosperity.”

Solomon hopes that some day, Israelis and Palestinians can live side-by-side peacefully.

“Build their infrastructure, schools, hospitals and roads and railways to make the life of the Gaza people better and make it [like] Dubai or Abu Dhabi and live together as any two friendly nations,” Solomon said.