Soumya Santosh Compensation: NoRKA Roots, the field agency of Department of Non-Resident Keralites (NoRKA), has donated four lakh rupees to Soumya Santosh's family on Monday.
''We are providing the insurance coverage to the non-resident Keralites in association with the public sector company the New India Assurance," Harikrishnan Namboothiri K, CEO of NoRKA Roots. He then added that Soumya had an expatriate identification card for Keralites working in abroad, which was issued by the field agency itself.
On May 11, Santosh was attending to an 80-year-old woman who was living in Ashkelon, a city that borders the Gaza Strip. A rocket struck the building she was in, and both Santosh, and the elderly woman passed away. This happened at the time when Soumya Santosh was on a video call with her husband.
What happened to Soumya Santosh?
Soumya Santosh was a 32-year-old woman, from the Idukki district of Kerala. She was working as a caregiver in Israel, for the last seven years.
It was her brother-in-law who first spoke about the incident, to PTI. He said that his brother heard a loud sound while he was on call, and suddenly, the phone got disconnected. The family then had to reach out to fellowship Malayalees living in the area, and got to know the whole story.
Soon after her death, the Indian embassy in Tel Aviv, started making arrangements, to bring her body back to India.
On 15 May, Soumya Santosh's body reached India. Union Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs V Muraleedharan and Israeli Deputy envoy Rony Yedidia Clein paid their last respects to her.
Then on May 21, Israel's president Reuvan Rivlin, had a word with her family, and expressed his condolences. He then thanked PM Modi, and the people of India, for their support for Israel.
Speaking with the families of Soumya Santosh of #India and of Weerawat Karunborirak and Sikarin Sa-ngamrum of #Thailand, killed by Hamas #terror attacks on #Israel in recent days. I expressed our deep condolences for their tragic deaths.
— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) May 21, 2021
This happened in the wake of the Israel-Palestine conflict, which grabbed headlines, earlier this month.