Salil Parekh says all Infosys employees in Israel are safe

Indian IT services company Infosys on Thursday said all its employees in Israel are safe.

Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh said its employees in Israel are primarily locals but declined to comment on the exact staff strength there.

The company further said it is "saddened" by the situation unfolding in the region.

"We have business in Israel in that part of the region and...with what is going on there...we are saddened by it.

"All of our employees are safe in that business," the Infosys top honcho said during the Q2 earnings briefing.

On Wednesday, the country's largest IT services company TCS said it has 250 staffers in Israel and stressed that the ongoing conflict will not have any major impact on its business.

TCS has said it is in constant touch with all staffers, and at present, the focus is their safety and to look at how they help the communities they live in.

It has initiated business continuity plans wherever necessary to ensure that the customers do not get impacted, TCS chief operating officer N Ganapathy Subramaniam told reporters, adding that it does not expect any major impact of the war on its business.

Asked if it is evacuating its workers out of the country, he said a good number of the staffers there are locals.

However, he added that if anybody wants to come back or stay, the decisions will be taken.

He said that at present, "we must also understand that flights from Israel are not functioning normally", hinting that an evacuation will be difficult to carry out.

Militant group Hamas on Saturday launched a surprise air and ground attack on Israel from its base in the Gaza Strip, leading to hundreds of deaths.

Israel retaliated with strikes inside the strip.

Israeli jets are pounding the densely-populated enclave, launching an all-out offensive in response to Hamas' brutal terror strikes as the conflict entered its sixth day.