BANGKOK (AP) — 5 Thai employees launched after being held hostage for over a 12 months in Gaza arrived in Bangkok on Sunday.Sarusak Rumnao, 32, Watchara Sriaoun, 33, Sathian Suwannakham, 35, Pongsak Thaenna, 36, and Bannawat Saethao, 27, had been freed on Jan. 30 as a part of an change association.They had been embraced by way of members of the family, a few of whom cried, within the arrivals corridor at Suvarnabhumi airport. Thai International Minister Maris Sagniampongsa and the Israeli Ambassador to Thailand Orna Sagiv had been each on the airport to welcome house the freed hostages.“We’re all very thankful and more than pleased that we get to go back to our place of birth. All of us would in point of fact love to thanks. I don’t know what else to mention,” Pongsak instructed a information convention on the airport.Maris mentioned the Thai executive “by no means gave up hope and this is the outcome these days. The tears of pleasure are our encouragement.” He added that Bangkok would proceed operating to protected the discharge of the remainder Thai hostage.
The crowd briefly left the inside track convention to go back to their hometowns in Thailand’s northern and northeastern areas.They had been the second one batch of Thai hostages launched for the reason that conflict broke out. All the way through an previous ceasefire in November 2023, 23 Thai nationals had been launched in a deal negotiated between Thailand and Hamas, with the aid of Qatar and Iran.
All 5 males had been assessed at a medical institution out of doors Tel Aviv previous to their go back. 4 of them had been joined by way of one relative every previous this week. The shuttle was once backed by way of the Israeli executive, in line with the Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv.
Hamas militants abducted 31 Thai nationals all through the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, making them the biggest crew of foreigners held captive. Lots of the Thai agricultural employees lived in compounds at the outskirts of southern Israeli kibbutzim and cities, and Hamas militants overran the ones puts first.
A complete of 46 Thais were killed all through the battle, together with two Thai electorate who had been killed all through the assault and their our bodies taken into Gaza, in line with Thailand’s Ministry of International Affairs.There was once no instant knowledge to be had about Nattapong Pingsa, who’s the final Thai hostage left in Gaza, nor the 2 Thai employees whose our bodies had been taken into Gaza.Maris, the Thai international minister, traveled to Israel to seek advice from the 5 freed males in a while after their liberate. Maris met together with his Israeli opposite numbers looking for improve to protected the discharge of the remainder Thai hostage and retrieve the our bodies of the 2 deceased Thais.Thai employees stay the biggest crew of international agricultural laborers in Israel. The nations applied a bilateral settlement a decade in the past in particular easing the best way for Thai agricultural employees. Many Palestinian employees had since returned, and earlier than the Hamas assault about part of Israel’s staff was once made up of international and Palestinian laborers.
