BANGKOK – Mr Vetoon Phoome’s family feared the Thai farm worker had been killed by Hamas in the Oct 7 attack on Israel, until they found out on Nov 25 that he had been freed along with other Thai hostages in Gaza.

“He told me not to cry, to tell mother (he’s) coming back,” Ms Roongarun Wichagern said of her younger brother after an emotional reunion on a video call.

Mr Vetoon, 33, who has been living in Israel for five years, was one of 10 Thai hostages freed by Hamas during the first truce of a seven-week-old war that started with the Palestinian militant group’s attack on southern Israel.

“He said, ‘I’m not dead, I’m not dead’,” Ms Roongarun said, calling his survival a “miracle”.

The 10 Thais were among 24 hostages freed on Nov 24 in a deal negotiated in parallel with the truce and an exchange of 39 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Thailand’s government said 20 of its nationals are still captive.

Thailand’s foreign minister and army chief will travel to Israel to bring back the freed hostages, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin told reporters, adding that his government was still trying to secure the release of the remaining captives.

“We will not stop. We will bring them back,” he said.

Iran’s embassy in Bangkok said on social media that Teheran had facilitated the release by providing a list of names to Hamas following a request from Thailand’s Foreign Ministry and a parliamentary speaker.

A Thai Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Thailand had “provided lists since the beginning to everyone”, including Qatar, Egypt, Israel and Iran. “Different actors would have different influence on Hamas,” the spokesperson said.

Migrant workers

About 30,000 Thai nationals work in Israel, forming one of its largest groups of migrant workers, many in agriculture.

Mr Vetoon told his family he had shouted “Thailand, Thailand!” when militants approached, before they captured him and held him in tunnels, Ms Roongarun said.

He was not wounded or tortured, was given food and water, and did not appear to have lost weight, she added. His friends believed he had died, but the family followed the news “without sleeping”, hoping he had been taken hostage.

“I saw the news hostages would be released, and then someone sent a photo,” Ms Roongarun said. “It was clearly my little brother.”

The released captives included the only Thai woman known to be held by Hamas, a factory worker and mother from a poor rural area where many people leave to seek opportunities abroad.

Photographs from the Thai Foreign Ministry showed them meeting doctors at a medical centre in Israel.

A source briefed on the negotiations said the release was unrelated to the truce deal with Israel and followed a separate track of talks with Hamas mediated by Egypt and Qatar.

The ministry thanked the governments of Egypt, Iran, Israel, Malaysia, Qatar and the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as others involved in the “immense efforts” that led to the release.

Earlier reports said about a dozen Thais were released.

Ms Thongkoon Onkaew said that the authorities said her son, Mr Natthaporn Onkaew, a 26-year-old farm worker, was not among the first group released. But, she said, “I’m waiting for good news”. REUTERS