5 Thai males held hostage for 15 months in Gaza have arrived again of their house nation the place they had been reunited with their households.
Pongsak Thaenna, 36, Sarusak Rumnao, 32, Watchara Sriaoun, 33, Sathian Suwannakham, 35, and Bannawat Saethao, 27, had been launched by militants on 30 January as a part of an change settlement.
Mr Pongsak mentioned the entire group “feel grateful and are so delighted to return to our motherland once again”.
In emotional scenes at Suvarnabhumi Airport within the Thai capital Bangkok on Sunday, they had been met with embraces from their family members, a few of whom cried.
Picture:
Bannawat Saethao (second from left) hugs relations on the airport. Pic: AP
The farm staff had been assessed at a hospital exterior Tel Aviv earlier than their return. Earlier this week, 4 of them had been joined by one relative every.
The 5 had been taken throughout Hamas’s cross-border assault in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, when 1,200 folks had been killed and about 250 others kidnapped.
Through the assault, the gunmen killed 41 Thais and seized 31 others, making them the biggest group of foreigners held captive in Gaza.
Reward for Thailand’s authorities
He mentioned: “I would like to thank the prime minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labour and relevant officers who helped us to be released.
“For at the moment I get to be standing proper right here. It would not have occurred if it wasn’t due to every considered one of you who supplied help.
“All of us here feel grateful and are so delighted to return to our motherland once again. We all thank you very much. I don’t know what to say. Thank you very much.”
“I was so overwhelmed. I was speechless.”
Picture:
Surasak Rumnao, Sathian Suwannakham, Bannawat Saethao, Watchara Sriaoun, and Pongsak Thaenna. Pic: Reuters
‘We by no means gave up’
Thai overseas minister Maris Sangiampongsa, who escorted the hostages again from Israel, expressed aid at their return.
“This is emotional … to come back to the embrace of their families,” he mentioned. “We never gave up and this was the fruit of that.”
It comes a day after Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages whose gaunt look shocked Israelis, and Israel freed dozens of Palestinians within the newest stage of a fragile ceasefire aimed toward ending the Gaza conflict.
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183 Palestinian prisoners freed in change for 3 Israeli hostages
Lots of the Thai agricultural staff lived in compounds on the outskirts of southern Israeli kibbutzim and cities, and Hamas militants overran these locations first.
The 5 now again house had been the second batch of Thai hostages freed because the conflict broke out in October 2023.
Throughout an earlier ceasefire in November 2023, some 23 Thais had been launched in a deal negotiated between Thailand and Hamas, with help from Qatar and Iran.
A Thai nationwide remains to be believed to be held captive by Hamas, based on Thailand’s overseas ministry.
“We still have hope and continue to work to bring them back,” Mr Maris mentioned, including that this contains the our bodies of two Thais.
