India urges citizens working in Israel to 'relocate to safe areas'

Israel's Magen David Adom ambulance service near the scene of the strike in Margaliot

India has urged citizens working in Israel to "relocate to safe areas" after an Indian national was reportedly killed near the border with Lebanon.

Two Indian citizens were also seriously injured when an anti-tank missile hit a plantation in Margaliot on Monday.

The Israeli embassy in Delhi accused the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah of being behind the attack.

The Indian embassy in Israel has since advised all its nationals to stay away from the border.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the embassy added that it was in contact with Israeli authorities to "ensure the safety of all our nationals".

However, it did not directly address the anti-tank missile attack, nor how many people had died or been injured.

Media reports in both India and Israel say the man was an Indian national, while the Israeli embassy in Delhi has also expressed grief over the death of the man. According to reports, the man had only moved to Israel two months ago to work on a farm.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had earlier said it responded by hitting the site in Lebanon from where the missile was launched.

Tens of thousands of people living in communities near the border with Lebanon have been evacuated by Israeli authorities following an escalation in hostilities with Hezbollah on 8 October, the day after Hamas's attacks on southern Israel triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah - an Iran-backed Shia Islamist group proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK, US and others - is the largest military force in Lebanon. It says it is attacking Israel in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

The Israeli military has carried out air and artillery strikes in response, fuelling fears of a major confrontation.

Despite these fears, and the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, thousands of Indian job seekers have applied to work in Israel. Israeli businesses have been actively recruiting, hoping to fill the gaps left by some 80,000 Palestinians barred from working in Israel since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In India, unemployment remains high, with 42% of graduates under 25 years old having no jobs, as shown in the latest State of Working India report by Azim Premji University.

"This group has aspirations for higher incomes, and they don't want to do insecure gig work. This group is trading that extreme risk [of going to Israel] for higher incomes and some level of reduced precarity," explained Rosa Abraham, a labour economist with Azim Premji University.