2023-10-09 15:17:00
The Hamas attacks took place on Israeli soil, but have affected families around the world, with a growing list of foreign nationals killed or kidnapped.
Thailand announced that 12 citizens had been confirmed dead and that another 11 had been taken hostage by Hamas, a Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday, marking the largest loss of life by a nation. foreign to date.
Eight other Thais have been hospitalized for their injuries, spokeswoman Kanchana Patarachoke said.
“We do not want to make the names public out of courtesy. We do not want the relatives to find out regarding the news through the media before we have direct communication with them,” he added.
Israel has long been a major destination for Thai emigrants, most of whom do agricultural work.
There are regarding 30,000 Thai workers in Israel, according to the Foreign Ministry, and more than 1,000 have requested help to evacuate.
The Thai government is prepared to evacuate the rest of its citizens with Royal Thai Air Force planes on alert, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said in a message on X, formerly Twitter.
“The number will increase”: Among the foreigners known to have died so far are four Americans, two Ukrainians, 10 Nepalis, one Frenchman and one Briton.
Nepalis were killed when militants attacked Kibbutz Alumim in southern Israel on Saturday, Nepalese ambassador Kanta Rizal told CNN on Sunday.
The deceased were agriculture students who were studying and working under the Israeli government’s “Learn and Earn” program, Rizal explained. The embassy is working to repatriate the bodies, he added.
Other missing foreigners: three Brazilians, two Mexicans, a Nepalese student and a British citizen are among the missing.
Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena said Sunday that the two Mexican citizens, a woman and a man, have been “presumably” taken hostage by Hamas.
The two Brazilians and Jake Marlowe, a 26-year-old British citizen, were at the music festival near the Gaza border that was attacked on Saturday. Marlowe worked there as a security guard, his mother reported to the Israeli embassy in the United Kingdom.
The German Foreign Ministry said it “has to assume” that there are German citizens among those kidnapped, a ministry source told CNN late Sunday.
One of the festival attendees with dual Israeli-German nationality, Shani Louk, was identified in social media videos naked and motionless while being paraded by fighters in Gaza.
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