‘Very hard for us to move on’: Family of man killed in Israel
Pat Nibin was killed on Monday in an anti-tank missile strike on an orchard in a collective agricultural community at Galilee in northern Israel
Kochi:
On Monday evening, shortly after 4pm, Ammu got a phone call from her husband Pat Nivin Maxwell, employed in an agricultural farm in Israel, and said that his younger brother Pat Nibin (31) was injured in a missile attack.
“He said Pat Nibin was hospitalised with grievous injuries and had hung up. There was no word for several hours. It was around midnight that he called back to say that his brother passed away. It is such a big loss for our family that I don’t know what to say,” Ammu told HT over the phone from the family residence in Vaddy in Kollam city.
Pat Nibin, who flew to Israel from Kerala in December last year to work as an agricultural labourer, was killed on Monday in an anti-tank missile strike on an orchard in a collective agricultural community at Galilee in northern Israel, confirmed the Israel embassy in India.
Two others, also from Kerala, were injured in the attack.
The embassy confirmed that the missile was fired by the Hezbollah, which has been launching rockets at northern Israel in support of Hamas in the ongoing war in Gaza.
The Israeli embassy in India, in a post on X, said it was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the death of an Indian national and the injury of two others due to a “cowardly terror attack” launched by Hezbollah on peaceful agriculture workers at an orchard in a northern village.
“Our prayers and thoughts naturally go to the families of the bereaved and those of the injured. Israeli medical institutions are completely at the service of the injured who are being treated by our very best medical staff. Israel regards equally all nationals, Israeli or foreign, who are injured or killed due to terrorism,” the post said.
In Kollam, the family of Pat Nibin are unable to come to terms with the loss. He is survived by his elderly parents, a four-year-old daughter, his pregnant wife, and two brothers, his relatives said.
“It was my husband who went first to Israel on an agriculture visa through an agency in the first week of December last year. He works in a farm near the Jordan border. Two weeks later, Pat Nibin also went to Israel on a similar visa to work on a chicken farm. My husband has to travel three hours to reach the farm where his brother worked,” recalled Ammu.
“We used to hear the sounds of bombs exploding during phone calls. They said the violence was continuing in the region. But they were forced to go due to the family’s financial condition. Pat Nibin earlier was employed in the Gulf, but he lost his job during the pandemic and had to return home. He tried to make a living in Kerala for some time but it wasn’t working out. He was earning well in Israel,” said Ammu.
The family has been told that the mortal remains are expected to be returned by Thursday. “To lose a man at such a young age, particularly when he was earning for his family back home, is so sad. It is going to be very hard for us to move on,” she rued.
