Body of Kerala woman killed in Israel to reach India today
IDUKKI The mortal remains of Soumya Santhosh, an Indian national from Kerala, who lost her life in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestine-based Hamas, will be brought to India on Saturday, said Union minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan said on Friday.
“The mortal remains of Ms Soumya Santhosh, who was killed in rocket attacks from Gaza, are being repatriated today from Israel to Kerala through Delhi.they will reach her native place tomorrow,” Muraleedharan said in a tweet. “I will personally be receiving the remains in Delhi. May her soul rest in peace,” he tweeted.
Thirty-two-year-old Soumya Santhosh, who belonged to Kerala’s Idukki, had been working in Israel for the last seven years. She was employed as a house help at a Jewish household in Ashkelon at the time of her death.
On Tuesday afternoon, during a video call with her husband back home, the building she was residing in was hit by a rocket fired by Hamas.
“She was complaining about the worsening situation and I heard a huge explosion. When I called her after ten minutes there was no answer,” her husband, Santhosh said .
Earlier this week, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the state government was in touch with the external affairs ministry and the embassy of Israel in Delhi to bring back Soumya’s body
Israel’s deputy chief of mission to India, Rony Yedidia Clein, on Thursday told news agency ANI that Israeli authorities will take care of Santhosh’s family, which includes her nine-year-old son.
Ron Malka, the country’s ambassador to India, too, reached out to her family, extending his condolences to her near and dear ones.
Malka also drew a parallel between Santhosh’s son and Moshe, an Israeli teenager who lost his parents as a toddler in Mumbai during the November 26, 2008 terror attacks in the city.