Kerala woman killed in rocket attack: Israel official offers help to her family

New Delhi, May 13: In a recent development, Israel's deputy chief of Mission to India, Rony Yedidia Clein, on Thursday said that the family of Soumya Santosh, who was killed in a rocket attack by Hamas, will be taken care of by the Israeli authorities.

"The family will be taken care of by the Israeli authorities in compensation for what happened, although nothing can ever compensate for the loss of a mother and wife," Clein was quoted as saying by a news agency.

According to reports, Clein also said that she has been in touch with the family of Santosh from Kerala, who died during a rocket attack in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Clein extended her condolences to Santosh's husband, adding that Israel will help in flying her mortal remains back to India.

"We've been in touch with the family. She was talking to her husband when this happened and I can imagine how horrendous it's for the husband. I can only sympathise with what he must be feeling," Santosh told a news agency.

Thirty-two-year-old Soumya Santosh 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.

On Wednesday, Israeli ambassador Ron Malka had reached out to Santosh's family to extend his condolences to her near ones. Malka drew a parallel between Santosh's nine-year-old son Adon and Moshe Holtzberg, a Jewish boy who survived the 26/11 siege of Chabad House but lost both his parents, and the tragedies they both suffered at a young age.