Hamas handed over the last body of a hostage from Thailand taken during the militant group’s 2023 attack on Israel, Thai and Israeli officials said on Thursday.
The Thai hostage, Sudthisak Rinthalak, was a farmworker at an orchard when he was taken away to Gaza and killed on Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli Defense Forces said on social media.
More than 250 hostages were taken during the attack. Over the past two years, 168 hostages were returned alive, some of them as part of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that was brokered in October by international mediators.
The remains of all but one hostage, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, an Israeli police officer who was also killed in the attack, have now been recovered. His remains are still in Gaza, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement.
At least 39 Thais were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel, making them the largest group of victims after Israelis. Nikorndej Balankura, a Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a news conference on Thursday that all 31 Thai hostages had been released, three of whom were dead.
Thousands of people from Thailand’s rural northeast have found work as farmhands in Israel. About 5,000 of them worked in fields near the border with Gaza to grow fresh produce consumed in Israel. Many Thais have stayed in Israel even after the attack.
Mr. Sudthisak’s body, which was handed over on Wednesday via the Red Cross to the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip, will be returned to his family in Thailand, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
The Thai government said that Mr. Sudthisak, 43, was from the northeastern province of Nong Khai. Mr. Nikorndej said that Thai officials were working with the Israeli authorities to repatriate his body as soon as possible for religious rites.
Muktita Suhartono contributed reporting.
John Yoon is a Times reporter based in Seoul who covers breaking and trending news.
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