Indian woman killed by Hamas rocket had been working in Israel for 7 years
Soumya Santosh was from Kerala's Idukki district, and has been working in Israel for seven years, according to relatives quoted by news agency PTI.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFThe scene where an apartment building was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on May 11, 2021.(photo credit: FLASH90)
One of the first two victims in Israel of the Hamas rocket barrage was Soumya Santosh, a caregiver from India for an elderly woman in Ashkelon, who was also killed.Santosh was from Kerala's Idukki district, and has been working in Israel for seven years, according to relatives quoted by news agency PTI.According to the PTI report, Santosh was talking to her husband in Kerala via a video call when a rocket - one of hundreds fired by Hamas this week - struck her building."My brother heard a huge sound during the video call. Suddenly the phone got disconnected," Santhosh's brother-in-law, Saji, told PTI.N12 reported that the closest bomb shelter was at least a minute's run away from the home and the pair could not manage to reach it in time.Indian media reported extensively about Santosh's death, including a conversation held by Israeli Ambassador to India Ron Malka with her family."The whole country is mourning her loss and we are here for them," Malka tweeted."I just spoke to the family of Ms Soumya Santosh, the victim of the Hamas terrorist strike. I expressed my sorrow for their unfortunate loss and extended my condolences on behalf of the state of Israel.The Israel ambassador also tweeted photographs of Santosh with her husband and nine-year-old son, who according to Indian reports, she last saw in 2017."My heart goes out to her nine-year-old son, Adon, who has lost his mother at such a young age and will have to grow up without her."
