High number of hostages drags Thailand into faraway fight

BANGKOK, Thailand — Thailand has begun negotiating directly with representatives of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Iran in a bid to release perhaps as many as 54 Thai hostages from Gaza, the largest single bloc of citizens from one country among the scores of kidnapped foreigners.

This overwhelmingly Buddhist Southeast Asian nation has unexpectedly found itself a key player in the Israeli-Hamas clash still unfolding more than 4,000 miles away. The fighting sparked by Hamas’ terror rampage has resulted in more than 1,400 Israeli and 8,000 Palestinian deaths since Oct. 7.

“Thailand is a neutral country and not part of the conflict. We only want our people to be safe, and the hostages released as soon as possible,” New Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin recently told the Bangkok Post.

Many of the estimated 30,000 Thai nationals recruited as migrant agricultural workers in Israel’s southern regions near Gaza were swept up in the initial Hamas attacks. Officials said at least 33 Thais were killed and a still-unknown number among the estimated 230 Israeli and foreign hostages taken by Hamas and still being held in Gaza.

Israeli officials said late last week that they counted 54 Thai nationals among the hostages — nearly a quarter of the overall total and triple the current official estimates from Bangkok. The Srettha government said it was trying to confirm the Israeli estimate and suggested it may include many who were already killed in the fighting.

Mr. Srettha faced controversy on another front in the war after Israeli diplomats aired a video at the recent U.N. General Assembly debate on the war apparently showing the brutal slaying by Hamas fighters of a Thai laborer during the attack. The video sparked anger here and brusque protest from the Thai Foreign Ministry.

“The ministry disapproves of the display of such footage, which does not afford the proper respect and due consideration for the deceased and his family,” the government statement issued Sunday said.

“This is not good,” Mr. Thavisin said. “The war is cruel enough. Doing that was like pouring fuel onto the fire.”

Negotiating with Hamas

Seyed Reza Nobakhti, Thailand’s ambassador to Iran, told reporters on Oct. 20 that he had monitored talks between the Iranian government and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The Hamas leader “said the Thai hostages are safe, and living with other Palestinian families, but unfortunately, Israelis keep bombarding all over, and this the problem,” the ambassador told a news conference called by the Bangkok-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

“The first condition that I think will allow the release of foreign hostages is at least there should be a temporary cease-fire negotiation, which will provide a way to release hostages and other foreigners in Gaza who are ready to leave,” the envoy said.

In Tehran, Hamas officials were photographed Friday holding direct negotiations with Sunni and Shia officials from Thailand’s Muslim community. The three-man Thai delegation was led by Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, who is speaker of Parliament’s House and a Sunni Muslim, as are about 99% of Thailand’s 7 million Muslims.

Saiyid Sulaiman Husaini, a leader of an organization representing Thailand’s tiny Shia Muslim community, indicated on Facebook that the Thai delegation flew to Tehran to engage with a Hamas envoy there.

“Hamas has given a signal to Thai representatives that it will release the Thai hostages immediately when the situation is safe, as they claimed that Israel is attacking all sides of the Gaza Strip to sacrifice foreign hostages to discredit Hamas,” Mr. Husaini posted, adding that “the negotiations went smoothly.”

Mr. Srettha on Sunday indicated a separate team headed by an unnamed Cabinet member would be leaving for the region soon “on a mission to seek the release of the Thai hostages.”

Questioning the pipeline

The prime minister has already said that, beyond the present crisis, the government would be giving the pipeline supplying vast numbers of Thai laborers to Israel’s agricultural sector a hard look. He has already appealed for all Thai laborers to come home as the violence in and around Gaza escalates and criticized Israeli efforts to convince Thai nationals to stay.

“I said [to Israel’s Ambassador to Thailand Orna Sagiv] bluntly that it’s unacceptable to lure people to stay with money,” to try to persuade Thais to continue working in Israel until the end of the year, Mr. Srettha said, according to local Thai media.

Even in the aftermath of the violence, some 20,000 Thai workers say they are considering whether they should stay in Israel, after about 8,000 others decided to return to Thailand. To date, 6,765 Thais, out of 8,478 who have applied for repatriation, have flown back to Thailand.

Thailand has adopted a neutral tone on the Israeli-Hamas clash, saying in a Foreign Ministry statement, “Thailand calls upon all parties involved to refrain from any actions that would further escalate tensions, and joins the international community in condemning any use of violence and indiscriminate attacks.”