‘Sirens before sunrise’: Indian workers brave war-zone routines in Israel over returning home

In the shadow of escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, thousands of Indian migrant workers have found themselves entrenched in an unfamiliar battlefield — not as soldiers, but as masons, tilers, bakers, and carpenters. Dodging missiles and rushing into bomb shelters, they continue their daily grind in Israel’s booming construction sector, choosing survival over surrender and paychecks over panic.

Most arrived in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, under a bilateral framework to fill the vacuum left by the departing Palestinian workforce. Today, roughly 15,000 Indian workers remain, undeterred by ballistic missile warnings and daily siren drills—what they now call their “new normal.”

“We’ve gotten used to the sirens, the shelters. Even during work, we know when it’s time to run,” says Mohan Lal, a foreman from Himachal Pradesh, working just 28 km from Tel Aviv in Palmachim.

He describes the shelters —“miklats” in Hebrew — as concrete bunkers barely large enough to hold a dozen people. They’re located close to construction zones and have become second homes during missile interceptions.

But in places like Tel Aviv, the scale is different. Dharamvir Singh, a ceramic tiler from Haryana, says, “The public shelters here are like underground cities—air-conditioned, with toilets and even lounge chairs. Some high-rises I work on have six floors built solely as bunkers.”

As Iran’s missile strikes increased after June 13, workers reported multiple daily siren runs. But now, the intensity has slightly dipped—with alerts sounding just once or twice a day. Crucially, the warning window has widened, giving workers 20–25 minutes to reach safety, compared to the earlier 10–15 minutes.

In Lod, a suburb near Tel Aviv, Gurdeep Chouhan, who works at Angel’s Bakery, notes a geographic disparity in threat levels. “The danger is lower in towns like ours. The big cities are packed with military and commercial targets.”

Still, the risk remains real—not from direct hits, but from missile debris falling post-interception by Israel’s Iron Dome. Subhash Chand, a carpenter from Hoshiarpur, Punjab, emphasizes how misinformation and old videos spark panic among families back home. “We try to reassure them—we’re safer here than they think.”

The pull to stay is more than just habit—it’s economic. Workers earn ₹1.5 to ₹2.5 lakh per month, a life-changing sum for many.

“Even a collector back home doesn’t earn this. Why would we leave now?” says Surendra Singh Saini, a driller from Rajasthan. “We’ll go back for Diwali, not because of fear.”

Supervisors like Dharma Kachawa, a senior Indian worker from Pushkar, have become the community’s informal sentinels. With a WhatsApp group of 400 workers under his watch, he acts swiftly when alerts come in.

“Some missiles still go through. So I tell my people—don’t wait for the siren. Move to safety as soon as you get the alert.”

Through it all, a curious kind of calm persists.

“We hear the ‘patakaas’ in the sky when missiles are intercepted. That’s our cue,” says Saini with a wry smile. “Then we return to our drills. Not the military kind—but the kind that builds homes, even in a war zone.”