Thai farmworkers who were taken as hostages to Gaza and released Saturday evening were “distraught” to hear about what happened to the rest of their colleagues at Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas terror attack on October 7.
As Breitbart News reported last week, nine Thai farmworkers were murdered in cold blood in a “safe room” near their living quarters on the kibbutz after a struggle.
The living quarters of the Thai farmworkers, ransacked during a struggle during the October 7 terror attack, Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel, November 21, 2023 (Joel Pollak / Breitbart News)
Five were taken hostage, and three survived. Two were released Saturday night, and were informed about what happened to the rest.
Hostages were often kept separate from one another, and while some had access to bits of news from the outside world, many did not know, until their release, whether their relatives or neighbors were murdered or kidnapped.
In a statement, Kibbutz Nir Oz said (original emphasis)
Kibbutz Nir Oz welcomes the return of Vitoon Phoomee, 33 years old and Wichai Kalapat, 28 years old from Thailand, who were brutally abducted from Nir Oz on October 7th.
There are three more foreign nationals that were abducted from Nir Oz, we are wishing for and demanding their immediate release.
The following statement is from Ofra Ben Shlomo the secretary of the field crops team in the Kibbutz, who has been in regular contact with their families and is with them at the hospital:
“Meeting them was very emotional and they were very distraught to hear about their friends who are no longer with us. We are here with them for whatever they may need. We helped them make a few video calls to their families and their friends who used to work at the kibbutz.”
A Filipino caretaker who worked with one of the elderly residents of the kibbutz was also released, on Friday evening.
In this photo provided by Thailand’s Foreign Ministry, Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, right, talks to one of the freed Thai hostages at the Shamir Medical Center in Israel Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023. Hamas freed 10 Thai nationals seized in the group’s surprise attack on southern Israel last month, releasing them alongside Israeli hostages who were part of the first swap under a new cease-fire deal. (Thailand’s Foreign Ministry via AP )
Israel hires many foreign farmworkers to help local workers manage the workload in the agricultural sector. Many have returned home during the present conflict. While, as Breitbart News noted, volunteers are helping bring in the crop, the Times of Israel reported last week that Israel’s agriculture sector currently lacks the manpower to manage the process of planting in the spring.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
