'Better life' - Indian construction workers line up to replace Palestinians in Israel

Construction noise is a near-constant across Israel; more high-rises join Tel Aviv's tech boom skyline every year, and new housing is badly needed all over the country, as well as in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Since 7 October, however, after the Hamas attack that sparked a new war in the Gaza Strip, building work has come to an almost complete halt.

- Bethan McKernan, Hannah Ellis-Petersen

The industry relied on about 80,000 Palestinian workers, who are now barred from entering Israeli territory. As a result, half-finished blocks are everywhere, yellow tower cranes waiting motionlessly overhead. In the West Bank, poverty rates have soared.

The economic impact for Israel could also be severe. The finance ministry has estimated the expulsion of Palestinian construction workers is costing some 3bn shekels (£656m) a month, and could eventually lead to a loss of 3% of GDP because the building and housing industries owe 400bn shekels (£88m) in loans.

But while Israel's divided government stalls on deciding whether to bring Palestinian workers back, an unexpected solution has been found: recruiting labourers from India.

"Right now I earn around 15,000 rupees (£150) a month," said Rajat Kumar, 27, from the north Indian state of Haryana. Though he has a bachelor's degree, for six years he had been unable to get any other job except construction, earning a salary he described as "peanuts".

Travelling abroad to a country engulfed in conflict was a small price to pay for regular, well-paid work, said Kumar, who got his first passport in order to apply for a job as a plasterer in Israel.

The job he has applied for in Israel would pay 138,000 rupees a month (£1,350), with accommodation provided, which he saw as a small fortune. "When I compare it with what I earn here, I can't think of anything but the better life I and my family will have," he said.