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Narissara Jantasang’s nine-year-old son was brimming with excitement as he watched footage of Thai hostages being released from Gaza on Thursday. Then he noticed his mother had started to cry. “He asked me: ‘what’s going on, Mom?’” Narissara says. “He realised his dad was not one of those released.”
Five of the remaining six Thai nationals still being held in Gaza were released on Thursday, after 15 months in captivity. Nattapong Pinta, 36, however, was not among them. Of dozens of Thais kidnapped by Hamas from the farms on which they were working in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, he is the last to remain.
“I feel hurt, why was it not him?” says Narissara. “I don’t know where to find an answer. Nobody can answer. I asked the embassy; the embassy can’t tell me.”
On Thursday night, their son, Weerapat Pinta, went to bed without dinner. “I just dropped him at school. Everyone is sad at the moment. I don’t know what to say,” she said.
“I told my son to keep strong – let’s wait for dad. He asked ‘how long?’ I said maybe next Saturday, there might be a release,” says Narissara. She says the same thing to everyone in the family. “I want to comfort them, even though I don’t really have information about when there will be a next round.”
Nattapong had moved to work in Israel in 2022, drawn, like many Thais, by the higher salaries offered there. “He wanted to improve our family situation. Our son was very young. We didn’t earn enough here,” says Narissara, who is from Nakhon Phanom, in north-east Thailand.
Nattapong worked hard while away, taking on overtime so he could send more money back to the family.
Joy at the release of five hostages
Throughout Thursday, Narissara stayed in touch with Nattapong’s family, who are in Phrae province, northern Thailand, speaking by phone as they waited for updates. They had been told the night before by Thai authorities that a hostage release would be taking place. The family was heartbroken when he wasn’t among them.
Israel is a common destination for Thai migrant workers. About 30,000 Thai nationals were working in Israel before the war, mostly in the agricultural sector.
Since the 7 October attacks by Hamas, the Israeli government said Thais made up the largest single group of foreign dead and missing. In addition to the five released on Thursday, a further 23 were released in 2023. A further 46 Thais are confirmed to have been killed.
For other families in Thailand, Thursday brought overwhelming relief. Wiwwaeo Sriaoun’s home in Udon Thani, north-east Thailand, erupted into deafening cheers and screaming when they saw images of her son, Watchara, finally released. “I now know for sure that he is coming home and that he is alive and safe,” says Wiwwaeo. She cried tears of joy when she saw the proof he was free.
Watchara’s nine-year-old daughter was ecstatic. “She really wants to see her father’s face,” said Wiwwaeo.
Wilart Thaenna, father of Pongsak Thaenna, from Buriram province, north-east Thailand, says he almost cried when he heard the news.
He would arrange a bai sri su kwan ceremony for his son, in which a white thread is placed around a person’s wrist, a tradition that is believed to bring the spirit to the body. He was overjoyed to be reunited. “I’ll cook whatever he wants to eat,” he said, adding they would gather as a family to celebrate. “I will say [to Pongsak], just stay home with me, you don’t need to go anywhere else,” he said.
The released Thai hostages were taken to hospital for medical treatment. It is not yet clear when they will return home.
In a statement, Thailand’s foreign ministry expressed “heartfelt congratulations to the families of the released hostages, as well as to extend its deep appreciation to Qatar, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, the US and other friendly countries as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross, and all the parties involved for their instrumental roles contributed to the release of the Thai hostages in the Gaza Strip and to Israel for taking care of them and facilitating their return to Thailand.”
It added that Thailand calls for the release of “all the remaining hostages including a Thai national soonest, so they can safely return to their homeland and to their beloved families.”
