The Thai, Israeli, and Qatari governments announced on Friday that a number of Thai captives taken during Hamas’s October 7 raids into Israel had been freed, just hours after the Israel-Hamas conflict came to an end.
During the surge of cross-border assaults into Israel last month, Palestinian terrorists are believed to have taken 240 prisoners, including 25 Thai nationals.
Twelve Thai captives were set free on Friday, according to reports from the Israeli and Thai governments.
Qatar, which mediated the landmark truce and exchange of hostages taken by Palestinian militants for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, put the number of Thais freed by Hamas lower, at 10 people.
In the worst attack in Israel’s history, 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel retaliated with a massive campaign of air, artillery and naval strikes alongside a ground offensive into Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas. According to the Hamas-run government, the war has killed around 15,000 people, thousands of them children.
On Friday, a truce began following weeks of negotiations brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
Under the agreement, a four-day pause in the fighting was set to see at least 50 hostages released from Gaza in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
“It has been confirmed by the security side and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that 12 Thai hostages are already released,” Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin posted on X.
The Thai foreign ministry said in a statement that the 12 released Thai hostages had been transported into Israel via Egypt, as agreed under the terms of the truce deal.
“At this time, the gender and names of these Thais are not known,” the ministry said, adding that it would “do all possible to expedite their return to Thailand.”
The chief of the Israeli government’s press office, Nitsan Chen, announced that the twelve Thai prisoners that Hamas had freed will be admitted to an Israeli hospital.
