IDF recovers body of Thai hostage
The remains of Nattapong Pinta were recovered in a special operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza.
Mr Pinta was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during the Oct 7 2023 attack on Israel, and he was killed in captivity shortly after being taken, the IDF said.
He had been working as a farm labourer on the Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel, just a few miles east of Gaza's border, when he was abducted.
The Thai national is the most recent hostage whose body has been found. On Thursday, the Israeli military recovered the bodies of US-Israeli dual citizens Judith Weinstein Haggai, 70, and Gad Haggai, 72, who were both residents of the same kibbutz where Mr Pinta worked.
Israeli authorities have said they believe all three of the recently found hostages were murdered by the terrorists who kidnapped them.
The attack that Hamas launched on Oct 7 surprised and devastated Israel, with the terrorist group killing more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of security personnel, and taking over 200 hostages.
About 30 Thais were abducted that day. Roughly two-thirds of those kidnapped on Oct 7 were subsequently released as part of deals between Israel and Hamas. Forty-six Thais have been killed during the conflict, the Thai foreign affairs ministry has said.
The war between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the Oct 7 attack, continues to rage on in Gaza. Attempts to broker a ceasefire and peace deal have repeatedly hit roadblocks. Hamas has rejected proposed deals that do not guarantee a full Israeli withdrawal from the Strip and an end to the war.
Mr Pinta, 36, who is survived by a young son and wife, was among those taken after he'd migrated to Israel as an agricultural labourer in 2022.
At the time of the Oct 7 attack, there were about 30,000 Thai migrant workers in Israel. Many of them returned home primarily via government evacuation flights, and some vowed never to return, given the risks they faced due to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
Since then, however, the Thai government has continued to grant permissions for its citizens to work in Israel.
Thais remain the largest group of foreign farm workers in Israel, with about 38,000 in the country, according to Thai officials.
There are 55 hostages remaining in Gaza, though only about 20 of them are believed to still be alive, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel said its expanded offensive in the Strip, named Operation Gideon's Chariot, will increase the chances of returning the missing.
However, many of the hostages' families have expressed alarm at the new tactic of seizing and holding territory, which follows heavy bombardment, and are urging Benjamin Netanyahu to make a deal with Hamas.
The Thai Embassy has been notified about Mr Pinta, according to the prime minister's office.
'We express our deep gratitude and appreciation to our brave commanders and soldiers for this important and successful operation,' said a statement from Netanyahu's office.
'We will not rest and we will not be silent until all our hostages are brought home – both the living and the deceased.'
'We stand with Nattapong's family today and share in their grief,' an Israeli hostage support group said in a statement.
'While the pain is immense, his family will finally have certainty after 20 terrible and agonising months of devastating uncertainty,' the statement said. 'Every family deserves such certainty to begin their personal healing journey.'
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Daily Mail
34 minutes ago
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The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
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While it might have been initially framed as an 'incursion' to eradicate Hamas and rescue the nearly 250 hostages seized on October 7, Israel's Gaza 'operation' has since moved into an entirely new and much wider military realm. It's one, too, for which it has been given virtual carte blanche by the US and Western countries to prosecute. Until that stops, Israel's dangerous expansionist ambitions will almost certainly continue to fuel an escalation in conflict across the Middle East. The days of framing such a military strategy as being driven by 'existential need' have gone. Israel, as many rightfully argue, is the real regional threat now.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Recognised Palestinian state could develop disputed gas resources, expert says
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Gas was discovered in the Gaza Marine field in 2000 in a joint venture owned by the BG Gas group, a giant privatised off-shoot of British Gas and the Palestinian Consolidated Contractors Company. The plan was for the gas to be used by the sole power station on the Gaza strip to end the territory's perennial energy shortages. Barron argues in his book – The Gaza Marine Story - that the fate of the project is a microcosm of how Israel worked to increase Palestinian dependence on Israel while at the same time trying to separate Palestinians from Israelis. The project was dogged by issues of commercial viability and an Israeli court ruling that the waters were a 'no-man's water', partly because the PA was not a sovereign entity with unambiguous powers to award licences. The court also did not resolve whether the rights to Palestinian territorial waters clearly provided for in the Oslo Accords included a Palestinian 'exclusive economic zone', a zone that normally extends 200 miles off the coast. The accords were only intended to be an interim arrangement before full statehood and so did not delineate the full maritime border. Territorial waters are normally defined as only 12 or 20 miles off the coast and Israel always argued that any licence for Gaza Marine 20 miles off the Gaza coast should be seen as a gift to the PA by Israel, and not a right. After Hamas took control the Gaza strip in 2007, Israel did not want the revenue to fall into its hands, so it blocked the development, prompting the BG group to put the project on hold and then eventually to quit. In June 2023 Israel approved plans for an Egyptian firm EGAS to develop the field, only for the war in Gaza to start. Gaza Marine is estimated to contain only 30 billion cubic metres (BCM) of natural gas, which is a small fraction of the more than 1,000 BCM contained in Israel's own territorial waters. Barron argued that Israel has its own gas supplies and so long as a Palestinian state with unified governance is recognised, Israel will have no motive or legal right to block Palestine exploiting its single greatest natural resource. The whole controversy around private sector investment in Israel's acknowledged occupation of Palestine moved centre stage with a report published last week by the UN special rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, warning corporations against sustaining what has been declared an unlawful occupation by the international court of justice (ICJ). She claims ICJ decisions place on corporate entities a prima facie responsibility 'to not engage and/or to withdraw totally and unconditionally from any associated dealings with Israel, and to ensure that any engagement with Palestinians enables their self-determination'. Her claim has been rejected wholesale by Israel.
