BANGKOK, Thailand — Five Thai farmworkers’ suffering ended with an exchange on Thursday alongside three released Israeli hostages. Diplomatic efforts to free them, at times, frayed relations between Bangkok and Jerusalem.
The release highlighted the unexpected collateral role Thailand found itself playing in a crisis more than 4,000 miles away — a bit player diplomatically with a huge stake in the outcome. Thai laborers, who had flocked to Israel in recent years, represented the highest number of foreign nationals that Palestinian Hamas militants took hostage in their surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Surprisingly, throughout the 15-month hostage crisis, tens of thousands of Thais continued to go to the higher-paying agricultural and construction jobs in the Jewish state.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra told reporters in Bangkok she was “elated” at the news.
“Elated to get confirmation from our Thai Ambassador in Israel who informed me on the phone just now that five of our Thai nationals were indeed released today from Gaza,” Ms. Paetongtarn said in a statement in English on several of her official social media accounts, the agency reported. The Thai Government, including everyone here in Thailand, have long been waiting for this very moment.”
The hostages’ desperate families have been waiting in anguish in this Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian nation, praying at temples and frantically trying to get officials to help them.
“It is confirmed, my son did not die,” Wiwwaeo Sriaoun, mother of one freed hostage, told the Agency France Press news service Thursday. “I will hug him when I see him. I want to see if his health is OK. I am worried about his health,” she said while watching the news unfold at the family’s home in northeast Thailand’s Isaan region.
Only one Thai hostage, Pinta Nattapong, is believed to still be in captivity in Gaza, along with the bodies of two Thai hostages now thought to be dead. The dead were identified as Sudthisak Rinthalak and Sonthaya Oakkharasri.
Most of Thailand’s hostages came from the dry, bleak, northeast Isaan region where unemployment is high and life is hard. Working in Israel has long been seen as quite lucrative.
Still, it has been a delicate diplomatic dance for authorities here, as Israeli, U.S. and regional diplomats struggled for months to negotiate a ceasefire and a gradual release of the estimated 100 or so hostages. The Thai government deliberately chose not to confront Hamas and the other Palestinian militants in public with threats and denunciations, and instead dealt with the problem behind closed doors.
About 30,000 Thais were working in Israel when the war started, according to the Thai Foreign Ministry, the vast majority in agriculture. About a fifth of those laborers were located in the southern area near the border with Gaza.
Occasional stories appeared in Thai media but news updates were mostly low-key, spotty and brief.
“Many Thai people forgot about the hostages because they weren’t famous, or celebrities, and no one knew them except their families,” a Thai pharmacist in Isaan said in an interview, asking not to be named.
The five freed Thai farm workers have been identified as: Pongsak Thanna, Sathian Suwannakham, Watchara Sriaoun, Seathao Bannawat, and Rumnao Surasak.
“I am very super-duper happy, so excited,” said Vilas Thanna, father of freed hostage Pongsak Thanna, at their home in Isaan, according to The New York Times.
The Israel Defense Force and Israeli Security Agency escorted the Thais and Israelis out of the Gaza Strip and delivered them to the Red Cross in Israel for medical examinations and treatment. Some 110 Palestinians, including 30 children, held in Israeli jails were reportedly freed as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, sparking scenes of jubilation on the streets of Gaza.
“We are moved to tears by the return from captivity of Agam Berger, Arbel Yehoud, and Gadi Mozes, together with five Thai citizens,” said Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
When the Thai hostages eventually arrive safely in Bangkok, they will receive financial assistance, counseling and other support, Thai officials said.
More Thais to Israel
Despite the ordeal, Thailand said last summer it would allow 5,000 Thai nationals to fly to Israel to work for better-paying jobs in desert “safe areas” and “green areas” away from Gaza, and hopes to send 40,000 more. “It can’t be denied that Thailand’s economy is not appealing enough to keep these workers here,” Thailand’s then-Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said at the time.
Israel’s Population, Immigration, and Border Authority fixed the yearly quota at 6,000 Thais, Thailand’s Employment Department said.
Bangkok had lobbied Tel Aviv to increase their quota to allow more working-age Thai people to travel to Israel for work, citing a bilateral cooperation agreement.
The release cannot fully erase the searing memories of Oct. 7, when Hamas and other Palestinian militants forces killed more than 1,200 people — including 41 Thais. The militants also took some 31 Thais as hostages back into the densely populated Palestinian enclave.
In an impressive diplomatic effort, the militants agreed to quickly release 14 Thais in November 2023, after a three-man delegation of Thai Muslim political and religious leaders did what other officials were unable or unwilling to do — they flew to Iran and met directly with the Hamas envoy in Tehran.
“An emphasis was made that Thailand was not an enemy to any party, and Thailand was not a part of the conflict,” said former Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon in an interview at the time. “Thailand has good relations with the United States, Israel, Iran, as well as the Palestinians.”
Nine more Thais were soon also released, resulting in a total of 23 freed Thais in 2023.
One of the 23 workers, Manee Jirachat, recalled the terror of the day he was abducted, telling Germany’s DW news agency: “[Hamas militants] shot two of my companions in the head, just because there was no room left for more hostages” in the truck which took them away.
Nearly 5,000 Thais were quickly evacuated to Thailand in the aftermath of the assault, but about 20,000 chose to remain in Israel because they needed the money. Today, Thai workers still make up the majority of foreign agricultural workers in Israel.
The campaign to free the Thai hostages caught up in the Israeli-Palestinian clashes led to some tense diplomatic moments.
In 2024, Israel’s ambassador to Thailand, Orna Sagiv, attached big pictures of hostages’ faces onto 10 taxis, alongside a demand in Thai and English for their freedom. Ms. Sagiv led the rolling procession from Israel’s embassy through Bangkok’s main streets, apparently to generate public support for new pressure on Hamas to cooperate.
“The activity was held by the Israeli embassy, and Thailand did not participate or support in organizing the activity,” Thailand’s miffed foreign ministry said at the time.
“We don’t want any country to use Thailand as a platform to create conflict,” said then-Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara.
Thailand was involved in delicate diplomatic efforts to gain their freedom, “so it does not want to create any problems that will cause any misunderstanding among parties involved in the conflict,” Mr. Parnpree said. “Thailand is friends with every country.”
In 2012, Bangkok recognized Palestine as a nation within its pre-1967 borders, and established diplomatic relations by endorsing the Palestinians’ 1988 declaration of independence.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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