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The households of 5 Thai employees who had been held hostage by Hamas for a yr had been overcome with emotion as they had been reunited with their family members.
The arrival halls of Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok noticed relations speeding to hug the freed hostages and weeping with pleasure as they returned after spending 500 days in captivity.
The 5 employees – Sarusak Rumnao, 32, Watchara Sriaoun, 33, Sathian Suwannakham, 35, Pongsak Thaenna, 36, and Bannawat Saethao, 27 – had been freed on 30 January after the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
The Thai nationals who largely work as farm labourers in Israel had been kidnapped by Hamas militants on 7 October 2023 throughout the assaults that set off Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s struggle within the Gaza Strip to focus on the members of the organisation.
Mr Pongsak, one of many returnees, informed reporters on the airport that he was at a lack of phrases at seeing his relations after days.
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“We’re all very grateful and really completely happy that we get to return to our homeland. All of us would love to thanks. I do not know what else to say,” Mr Pongsak informed a information convention on the airport.
Somboon Saethao, the daddy of Mr Bannawat and lives in Nan province, informed AFP: “I don’t suppose I would like him to be removed from house once more.”
He mentioned his household arrived to welcome him in a standard Thai ceremony.
Thai overseas minister Maris Sagniampongsa and the Israeli ambassador to Thailand Orna Sagiv had been each on the airport to welcome house the freed hostages.
Mr Maris mentioned the Thai authorities “by no means gave up hope and right here is the consequence as we speak. The tears of pleasure are our encouragement”.
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He added that Bangkok would proceed working to safe the discharge of the remaining Thai hostage.
Photos and movies confirmed smiling males arriving on the airport with folded palms and so they had been greeted by their relations, together with youngsters and oldsters, who broke down attributable to overwhelming feelings.
The Thai nationals rapidly ended their convention and left for his or her respective hometowns.
After their launch, all 5 males had been assessed at a hospital outdoors Tel Aviv earlier than their journey to Thailand. 4 of them had been joined by one relative every earlier this week.
The journey was sponsored by the Israeli authorities, based on the Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv.
They had been a part of the group of 31 Thai nationals held hostage throughout the October assaults, making them the most important group of foreigners held captive.
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They had been the second batch of Thai hostages launched because the struggle broke out.
Throughout an earlier ceasefire in November 2023, 23 Thai nationals had been launched in a deal negotiated between Thailand and Hamas, with help from Qatar and Iran.
Based on Thailand’s ministry of overseas affairs, 46 Thai nationals have been killed within the battle, together with two who had been killed throughout the assault and whose our bodies had been taken into Gaza.
There was no replace on Nattapong Pingsa, the final remaining Thai hostage in Gaza, or the 2 Thai employees whose our bodies had been taken into the territory.
