BANGKOK, Thailand — Five Thai workers released after being held hostage for over a year by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza arrived in Bangkok on Sunday, with their families weeping with joy and hugging their loved ones.
Sarusak Rumnao, 32, Watchara Sriaoun, 33, Sathian Suwannakham, 35, Pongsak Thenna, 36, and Bannawat Saethao, 27, were freed on January 30 after 482 days in captivity as part of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the Gaza war, which was sparked by the Hamas terror group’s onslaught of October 7, 2023.
They were discharged from Sheba Medical Center in central Israel on Saturday after undergoing 10 days of medical treatment and observation.
They were embraced by family members, some of whom cried, in the arrivals hall at Suvarnabhumi airport Sunday. Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sagniampongsa and the Israeli Ambassador to Thailand Orna Sagiv were both at the airport to welcome home the freed hostages.
“We are all very grateful and very happy that we get to return to our homeland. We all would really like to thank you. I don’t know what else to say,” Pongsak told a news conference at the airport.
Somboon Saethao said he was “so happy” and that his family would welcome his son Bannawat home with a traditional Thai ceremony.
“I don’t think I want him to be far from home again,” Somboon told AFP.
His son moved to Israel nine months before his kidnap in search of a better income for the family, he added.
Maris, the Thai foreign minister, said his government “never gave up hope and here is the result today. The tears of joy are our encouragement.” He added that Bangkok would continue working to secure the release of a remaining Thai hostage.
The group quickly left the news conference to return to their hometowns in Thailand’s northern and northeastern regions.
There is no current information available about Nattapong Pingsa, who is the last Thai hostage left in Gaza, nor about two Thai citizens who were killed in the October 7 attack with their bodies taken into the Strip.
Maris traveled to Israel to visit the five freed men shortly after their release. Maris met with his Israeli counterparts seeking support to secure the release of the remaining Thai hostage and retrieve the bodies of the two deceased Thais.
The five had been working in Israeli communities close to the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages.
The five were released in a chaotic scene in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, along with Israelis Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Mozes, on January 30.
Bottom row (L) Phuriphat Thenna is reunited with his uncle, released hostage Thenna Pongsak (R) Ratthanan Saethao greets his brother, released hostage Bannawat Saethao, at the Shamir Medical Center, Feb. 4, 2025. (Maayan Toaf/GPO)
Four of them were joined by one relative each at the hospital in Israel. The trip was sponsored by the Israeli government, according to the Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv.
The Thai nationals, who were among 31 foreign workers kidnapped in the Hamas attack, were released outside the framework of a hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that came into effect last week.
Tens of thousands of laborers from Southeast Asia were working in Israel when the Hamas attack unfolded.
Thai nationals working in fields and farms near Gaza were by far the largest group and the most heavily affected.
A total of 46 Thai workers were killed in the October 2023 attacks, according to the foreign ministry in Bangkok.
During a November 2023 ceasefire-hostage deal, 23 Thai hostages were released in a deal negotiated between Thailand and Hamas, with assistance from Qatar and Iran.
Thailand has about 30,000 citizens in Israel, most of them working in the agricultural sector, where they earn significantly higher salaries as laborers than they would at home.
Most Thai nationals in the country returned home after the Hamas attack, but the number of migrant workers has been steadily growing again.
Thailand’s Ministry of Labor said last week that the country would expand its workforce in Israel by 13,000 positions.
As of Saturday, 16 Israeli hostages of the 33 children, women and older men set to be released in the first, 42-day phase of the agreement have come home, along with the five Thai hostages. Hundreds of Palestinian terror convicts have been released under the deal.
Seventy-three of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014.