Supermarket manager Laknath Dias says the economic crisis in his native Sri Lanka is too much for him to bear. He is getting ready to fly to Israel in December to work as a farmhand for nearly 10 times the pay, despite Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

Dias is among 20,000 workers that Sri Lanka, desperate for dollars and remittances, plans to send to Israel starting early next month to work in the farm and construction sectors, a Sri Lankan minister told Reuters.

Israel’s farms, most of which are in the centre and south of the country, traditionally rely on thousands of Thai and Palestinian workers to till the land and bring in the crops.

But many Thais fled Israel after the Hamas assault on Oct 7, while the Palestinians have largely been banned from the workforce, forcing farms to send out an SOS for workers during the harvest.

Dias, 39, said he has experience living through conflict. He says his monthly salary of 72,000 rupees ($219) is not enough to sustain his family of five because of the high cost of living. Dias expects to make about 700,000 rupees as a farmhand in Israel, where he plans to work for five years.

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