Israel Recovers Body of Thai Farmworker in Gaza

Israelis security forces have recovered the body of a Thai citizen who was abducted and taken back to Gaza in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the military said on Saturday.

Nattapong Pinta was in his 30s and was a farmworker at Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel when he was taken hostage. He was held and later killed by members of the Mujahideen Brigades, a small militant group in Gaza, according to the Israeli military statement.

Security forces brought the body back from the Rafah area in southern Gaza after the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency obtained intelligence from a Palestinian militant during an interrogation, the statement added.

Palestinian militants took dozens of Thai farmworkers hostage in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. During a short cease-fire in November 2023, 23 Thai captives were released and five others were released during another cease-fire this year.

Israel believes the bodies of two other Thai citizens, Sonthaya Oakkharasri and Sudthisak Rinthalak, remain in Gaza, according to Yahel Kurlander, a sociologist who has been fighting for the release of Thai hostages.

The latest hostage retrieval brings the number of remaining living and dead captives believed to still be held in Gaza to 55. The Israeli government has said that up to 23 are believed to be alive.

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, updated his Thai counterpart, Maris Sangiampongsa, about the details of the operation to bring the Thai farmworker’s body back to Israel, according to a statement from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. He was married and has a son, the ministry said.

He had been in Israel for more than a year when he was taken hostage, and he was a strong personality who acted as a bridge between other Thai farmworkers at Nir Oz and employers, according to Josh Lawson, an official in the Israeli prime minister’s office who deals with foreign hostages.