KOLKATA/HYDERABAD: “It is getting scarier by the day,” said Nilabja Roychowdhury from Madhyamgram near Kolkata, who is studying medicine at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, as the Israel-Iran conflict escalated on Wednesday.
“The situation is tough… We have not seen something as threatening as this ever,” said Rajesh Medicherla from Telangana, who works as a caregiver in Tel Aviv.Medicherla shared a video showing a missile falling on a building in Tel Aviv, exclaiming in Telugu: “bro… bro… padutundi (brother, it’s falling)!” He added, “It was inconceivable that the missiles would reach as far as Tel Aviv.”
Iran‘s missile attacks on Tel Aviv and other cities have left many Indian workers and students in Israel deeply concerned. While they are safe for the moment, there is mounting fear as tensions could escalate further.
Several research scholars from Bengal, studying and working in Israel, are desperate to return home. However, with most international flights suspended, they find their efforts frustrated. On Wednesday, they are awaiting evacuation guidance from the ministry of external affairs.
“A few days ago, a bomb dropped barely 100 metres from a friend’s home. A CCTV camera captured the footage. It could have been his house too. The Israel-Hamas conflict last year did not affect us much, but this time it is different,” said Roychowdhury, who lives in Safed, in northern Israel.
Northern cities like Safed and Haifa have been heavily impacted, with villages near the border being evacuated. Residents have been forced into bunkers for hours as sirens blare.
Puspur Sarangadhar, another caregiver from Telangana, said a fat paycheque, five times what he earned back home, brought him to Israel. “I have to take care of the educational expenses of my two children,” Sarangadhar said, but his resolve is being tested by the crisis.
About 600 to 700 people from Telangana live in Ramat Gan, a city in Tel Aviv district. Some had returned to India last month, fearing retaliation after Israel’s strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, but many remained.
Haifa, previously safer, is now feeling the brunt of the conflict. Sankhanava Kundu, a PhD student at University of Haifa, said missile interceptions and explosions have made life terrifying. Kundu said the Indian embassy had urged them to stay alert and follow local safety protocols.