Thousands of men queued in India's northern state of Harayana during a recruitment drive to send workers to Israel, where the offensive in Gaza, now in its fourth month, has caused a shortage of labour.

Masons, painters, electricians, plumbers and some farmers said they were looking for jobs in Israel with some willing to risk going into a conflict zone because they could make five times more money in a year than they would at home.

"There is unemployment here and its because of it that people want to leave," said Lekharam, a mason who was among the workers gathered at a recruitment camp in Rohtak, 66 km (40 miles) from the capital, New Delhi.

"If it's in our destiny to die, then we can die either here or there. My hope is that we will go and do good work and spend some time and come back."

Officials at Israel's embassy in New Delhi and in the Indian foreign ministry did not respond to questions about the recruitment.

India, now the world's most populous nation with a population of 1.4 billion, has an urban unemployment rate of 6.6 percent, government data shows.