The kidnapped worked as agriculture pawns for Israeli settlers in the Kibutz in southern Israel when they were caught.
ADVERTISINGFive Thai by Hamas, already adding 31 hostages of this nationality from the outbreak of 7-O.
For a brief high fire in November 2023, 23 Thai citizens had already been released in a negotiated agreement between Thailand and Hamaswith the Catar and Iran mediation. The death of two others has been confirmed and the whereabouts of a remaining person is not clear.
Thai suppose The largest group of retained foreigners For Hamas’s paramilitaries. Many were agricultural workers who lived in complexes on the outskirts of the Kibutz – Israeli agricultural communities with armed settlers – and in the cities of southern Israel, where the attacks of October 7 were produced. A total of 46 Thai have died during the conflict, according to the Foreign Ministry of Thailand.
In the first days after the attack, the then Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin He pressed the Israeli prime minister in telephone conversations to help Thai hostages. These are the last Thai citizens who have been released.
Thai immigrants for Israeli settlers
Some 30,000 Thai They worked in Israel when the war began, according to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the vast majority in agriculture.Some 5,000 lived in the southern zonenear the border with Gaza.
Success Rumnao He was kidnapped in the city of Yesha, near the South of the Gaza Strip. His mother, Khammee Lamnao, says that Thailand’s embassy in Israel has informed him that his son would be released. “I can’t wait to see my son,” said the 53 -year -old woman. Surak had been working in the agricultural sector in Israel For 15 months When it was taken hostage.
Pongsak Thaenna He was also kidnapped in Yesha. I had been working in Israel since 2016. “I felt that I was dying and reborn,” he said in an interview video distributed by the Thai government. “I really want to see my daughter.” His father, Wilas Thaenna, cried after receiving a call to tell him that his son had been released. “I never thought this day would come,” this 65 -year -old man told the ‘BBC’. “I don’t know how I overcome everything that happened. My son was kidnapped, I lost my wife, I had to stay loud. ”
A shot bannawat It was also kidnapped in the city of Yesha. According to the reports, the youngest of his three children had only one month when he was taken hostage. “I feel very relieved,” he said in the video given to him the Thai officials. “When I was there, I never knew if I could ever return home.”
(Tagstotranslate) Hamas