Indian women killed in Israel during Palestinian militants rocket attack

Jerusalem, May 12: Israel's former Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon has informed that 30-year-old Indian nurse has been killed during the Palestinian militant's attack. Soumya Santosh was the name of the Indian nurse. Santosh hailed from Kerala's Idukki district. She had been working as a caregiver attending to an old woman in Israel for the last seven years. She was working in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.

According to media reports, the rocket directly attacks the residence of 31-year old Soumya Santhosh. During the incident, Santhosh was killed in the attack while her elderly charge, 80, was hospitalized in serious condition. Santosh is reportedly survived by her husband and nine-year-old daughter.

According to Soumya's family in Kerala, she was talking to her husband Santosh over a video call in the evening when the incident took place. "My brother heard a huge sound during the video call. Suddenly the phone got disconnected. Then we immediately contacted fellow Malayalees working there. Thus, we came to know about the incident," Santosh's brother Saji said to the news agency.

Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan spoke with the family of Santhosh and conveyed his deep condolences at her tragic demise due to the rocket attacks from Gaza. "We have condemned these attacks and the violence in Jerusalem, and urged restraint by both sides," Muraleedharan said on Twitter.

Indian Ambassador to the UN TS Tirumurthi has condemned the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip and Israel. He further stressed that both sides should refrain from altering the status quo in the region.

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Ashkelon, which borders the Gaza Strip, has come under massive fire from the Palestinian militants. At least 31 people were killed in spiraling violence till 9 PM (local time) on Tuesday as Gaza-based militants fired hundreds of rockets on Israel since Monday evening. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes at Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the coastal strip.