Speaking at Printing United Expo, and wearing a t-shirt featuring a lenticular design with the Israel and US flags overlaid, Samuel outlined the horrors of 7 October and said it was a “very, very tragic situation.”

“More than 10 employees were directly impacted, and members of their families were murdered. Our president of the USA, his niece and her boyfriend were murdered,” he said.

“It’s impacting many of us and we also have employees that are now serving in the Army in the reserve force support. We have close to 70 employees serving the borders of Israel.

“It’s a traumatic situation right now. There are missiles flying all over Israel and it is a very fragile situation.”

The direct-to-garment and direct-to-fabric printing specialist employs around 500 in Israel.

He said Kornit’s priority as a company was “our people and our customers”.

“We are making sure our customers will not feel any impact of this event. We made checks of all the inventory, of spare parts, of ink and we have enough inventory in the regions outside of Israel – and our ink plant in Israel is operating fully – to support our customers beyond peak season.

“Israel is a strong nation and Kornit is a strong company,” he stated.

Kornit is showing its Presto Max system at the show with a new system for printing white inks on dark fabrics, alongside a showcase of textile printing including wool and silks.

The firm also updated on its Apollo device for mass customisation of direct-to-garment printing.

The Apollo can produce 400 garments per hour with no setup or pre-treatment required, and runs with just a single operator. It also has an energy-saving smart dryer system.

Kornit now has three installed in the US at beta site customers.

“We are getting very good feedback,” Samuel stated.

Footwear is next on Kornit’s agenda, and the business is developing technology for printing directly to footwear using know-how from 2021 acquisition Voxel8.

Also new is a collaboration with Adobe on new ripping technology. The K-Rip harnesses Adobe’s PDF Print Engine and colour management know-how from the printing industry to bring consistent and repeatable colour to DTG applications.

Kornit is one of a number of industry manufacturers that are headquartered or have substantial operations in Israel, with others including HP, Highcon, Scodix and Landa.

Executives from Landa Israel who were intending to host a briefing at Printing United Expo cancelled their travel plans because of the situation.