More than 250 Indians claiming descent from a biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday, as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel.

They are the first “Bnei Menashe” (“Sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government decided in November to fund the immigration of around 4,600 members of the community from the state of Manipur in northeast India.

The community claims to descend from Manasseh, the forefather of one of the biblical “lost tribes” of Israel exiled in 720 BC by Assyrian conquerors.