Kerala man who died in missile attack on Israel’s border went there just two months ago

PTI, Mar 5, 2024, 4:06 PM IST

A man hailing from Kerala who died in an anti-tank missile attack on Israel’s northern border had gone there only two months ago to work in a poultry farm, his father said on Tuesday.

While Nibin Maxwell, from Kollam in Kerala, was killed in the attack, two other Keralites — Bush Joseph George and Paul Melvin — were injured and are hospitalised.

Maxwell’s father said that it was his elder son who informed him about his younger son’s death.

”My elder son called me around 4.30 pm on Monday and told me that Maxwell was injured in the attack and was hospitalised. Later, at around 12.45 am, he told me that my younger son had died,” the father told a TV channel.

He also said that Maxwell left behind a four-and-a-half year old daughter and his wife was pregnant.

”Maxwell was in Muscat and Dubai earlier and then returned here. Thereafter, he went to Israel. First my elder son went there and a week later my younger son too went there,” he said.

He also said that according to his elder son, Maxwell’s body would be brought back to Kerala in four days time as there are some formalities and paperwork to be completed.

The missile hit a plantation in Margaliot, a moshav (collective agricultural community), in the Galilee region in the north of Israel around 11 am on Monday, Zaki Heller, spokesperson for rescue services Magen David Adom (MDA), told PTI.

The attack is believed to have been carried out by the Shi’ite Hezbollah faction in Lebanon, which has been launching rockets, missiles, and drones at northern Israel daily since October 8 in support of Hamas amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.