Relief in Thailand as Gaza hostages released

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Wanida Ma-asa sat up late on Saturday night in her home in north-eastern Thailand, desperately waiting to hear of more hostages being released from the Gaza Strip by Hamas. About 1am she eventually drifted off.

When she awoke on Sunday morning, the news she had craved for seven weeks had finally been delivered. Her husband, Anucha Angkaew, or “Art” as he is known, had been freed.

Anucha Angkaew (second from left) is pictured along with other freed Thai hostages in a photograph released by Hamas and circulated on social media.

“I am so happy and so overwhelmed,” she said on Sunday. “It was such a serious thing that happened that it’s hard to believe he’s released and will be home soon.”

Anucha, 28, was one of four kidnapped Thai nationals set free on Sunday by Hamas, their freedom restored along with that of 13 Israelis in what was the second round of hostage releases by the Islamic terrorist group.

Ten Thais had been let go on Friday in the first stage of an agreement in which Palestinians are also being released from Israeli prisons during a temporary ceasefire.

By late on Sunday, 50 days since Hamas’ attack on southern Israel triggered a new war, as many as 16 people from Thailand remained held by Hamas, according to an earlier estimate by the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen talks to one of the freed Thai hostages at the Shamir Medical Centre in Tel Aviv.Credit: AP

Living on kibbutzim and working on farms near Gaza under a deal struck between the South-East Asian nation and Israel to strengthen the latter’s agricultural labour force, they were caught up in the Palestinian militants’ savage onslaught of October 7.

Anucha, an avocado farmer, was taken from Kibbutz Re’im, four kilometres from the border with Gaza and close to the site of the music festival where concertgoers were massacred by Hamas gunmen.

His release was revealed in a photograph distributed by Hamas and which quickly found its way onto Wanida’s family social media chat group.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin confirmed the four additional citizens were free.

In this photo provided by Thailand’s Foreign Ministry, the first 10 freed Thai hostages and an officer (fourth from left), are pictured at Israel’s Shamir Medical Centre.Credit: AP

“Everybody is safe, on the whole in good mental health and are able to speak normally,” he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “They want a shower and to contact their relatives.”

Hamas is returning 50 abductees to Israel in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners as part of a delicate four-day truce negotiated by Qatar and Egypt. Israel released 39 Palestinians in the latest swap on Saturday night.

In Thailand, the mother of another of the freed hostages – 26-year-old Natthaporn Onkaew – said she was also overcome with relief.

“My granddaughter called me at 5am saying my son was among the hostages released, and I didn’t really believe it,” Thongkoon Onkaew told Reuters. “Then she sent me the photo and I was like, ‘That’s my son! My son!’

Anucha Angkaew and Wanida Ma-asa with their daughter, Rinlada, who is now seven.

“I’m so happy, I’m so glad, I can’t describe my feeling at all.”

Deep in Udon Thani province, near Thailand’s border with Laos, Wanida Ma-asa also learnt of Anucha’s release from the photograph, which was of the four most recently released men sitting in the back of a van.

Her husband, with whom she shares a seven-year-old daughter, was in the midst of a five-year contract to work in Israel – sending his salary back to his family – when he was taken captive.

She was yet to talk on the phone with him again at the time she spoke to this masthead on Sunday.

“We can’t wait to go pick him up from the airport,” she said. “I can’t wait to give him the embrace of the life partner reunion at last.”

Asked about the future, she said: “I don’t know yet what he will decide, but I don’t think he will continue to work overseas. In fact, if he says he will go back to Israel, I will be very upset.”

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