New Delhi, April 24 -- It is a 'homecoming' for around 240 Indians as they landed in the Ben Gurion Airport in Israel on Thursday. That is because they are believed to be the descendants of a biblical Jewish tribe.

The Bnei Menashe tribe (Sons of Manasseh) is a tribal community spread across Manipur and Mizoram and claims to descend from Manasseh, the forefather of one of the biblical "lost tribes" of Israel exiled in 720 BC by Assyrian conquerors.

The biblical Israel consisted of twelve tribes: Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, Manasseh, Yehuda and Benjamin.

Except for the members of Yehuda and Benjamin were forced to leave their homeland in the 8th century BCE and were scattered across the world f...