THAILAND The Hamas assault, Israel's bombs and freedom: the story of a Thai hostage

Gong Saelao was among the migrant workers kidnapped in the October 7 terrorist attack. He was released at the end of November, after weeks of fear “that he would not return home alive.” Over time, the kidnappers “became friendlier.” Mystery about the fate of those still imprisoned in the Strip. US President Biden calls for a truce of “six to eight weeks.”

Jerusalem () – The sound of approaching gunshots and explosions, the attempt to hide in his bedroom and the arrival of a group of assailants with pistols and rifles in their fists who blindfolded him, chained his wrists and ankle and they dragged him away. He was taken from the cultivated fields of southern Israel and dragged to various hideouts in the Gaza Strip. Gong Saelao, a Thai farmer who emigrated to the Middle East in search of work, still remembers the dramatic stages of the kidnapping by Hamas terrorist commandos on October 7 and the two months he spent in captivity.

Today, back in his country, he tries, not without difficulties, to overcome the psychological and physical suffering he suffered, although he also speaks of “gestures of kindness” he received from his captors in the Palestinian enclave. “He was terrified,” he tells BenarNews, “because he didn't know what they were thinking.” His release dates back to November 29, but he still admits that he “at first believed he would not come home alive.”

It was part of the 23 Thai hostages released by Hamas after spending almost two months in the hands of their captors. Little more than six months after the attack that caused nearly 1,200 deaths in Israel and the response of the Jewish State with the war in the Strip that left more than 33,000 dead, many of them civilians, including women and children, the hostage situation remains uncertain. Not only of the Israelis, but also of the dozens of foreigners – mostly Asians – often forgotten by international chronicles.

Nearly 30,000 Thais worked in Israel before the conflict began, most of them agricultural laborers from poor northeastern regions. Gong is of the Hmong ethnic group and recounted his ordeal from the house where he lives with his wife Suntree (pictured), 28, in the northern province of Chiang Rai. “Five Thais,” he recalls, “who were outside were picked up before me and taken to another place.” In the run-up to the kidnapping, he had broadcast live on social media the phases of the Hamas attack; Later, communication broke down and even his wife stopped being able to contact him, fearing the worst. Gong spent several weeks in the bowels of Gaza, trying to escape the increasingly intense Israeli bombings like the others. At first, he recalls, the kidnappers were distant, if not hostile, but over time they became “friendlier.” Rice, chicken, salad and bread – sometimes with butter or cheese – were his meals and he received medicine when he fell ill. “I regained hope,” he says, “of returning home alive.”

The time he spent in captivity, while the war raged outside, was spent chained, guarded and isolated from the rest of his compatriots, suffering from migraines and stress. They told me not to worry, that I would return home the next day,” says Gong, because “Thailand is good, they don't hurt the Thais.” In the end they kept their word and, after a “farewell meal,” they handed him over. (blindfolded) to another group who ended up handing him over to paramedics in a UN vehicle. It was,” he recalls, “like coming out of a black hole and being reborn.” On December 4, along with five other former hostages, he returned to Thailand. Some 15,000 Thai workers have returned to their country since the start of the war, but 60% of them say they will return to Israel as soon as the situation calms down. Not him: “Last time,” Gong concludes, “I was lucky, but next time I may not be so lucky.”

Among those who returned home after a period of captivity was a Thai couple who crowned their love by getting married in March. Nutthawaree Munkan and Boonthom Pankhong also spent several weeks in the hands of Hamas, being released at the end of November after 50 days of captivity. The couple fell in love and began a relationship while both working as farmers in a “moshav” in southern Israel, but were separated when the militia attacked. After their release, they returned to Thailand and were married in a private but participatory ceremony. “I find it difficult,” the woman said, “to understand how the remaining hostages will survive. I can't stop thinking about them.” A number indeterminate of the hostages kidnapped at the time of the assault remain in the hands of Hamas, not least because it is difficult to have substantial evidence that they are still alive in these hectic days of truce talks. Some of them come from various Asian nations, from Thailand to Nepal, and represent the “forgotten face” of this tragedy, including the Chinese-Israeli Noa Argamani, whose mother, terminally ill with cancer, he would like to see again before she dies. There is also no certain news about her and, to date, her parents' appeals for her release have been in vain. Finally, on the war front, a new intervention by the American president, Joe Biden, who asks the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who “is making a mistake in Gaza”, to accept a ceasefire “for six to eight weeks “because “there is no excuse” for not sending aid to the Strip. And while the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, contradicts his own Prime Minister by stating that there is no “safe” date for the invasion of Rafah, for the United Nations “humanity has lost its moral compass” with this conflict.

(Photo by BenarNews)