Israel says its military has retrieved body of Thai hostage from Gaza

Israel says it has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage kidnapped and taken into Gaza on October 7, 2023.

The country’s prime minister’s office said on Saturday that the body of Thai citizen Nattapong Pinta was returned to Israel in a special military operation.

The announcement comes as Israel continues its military offensive across the strip, killing at least 95 people in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Mr Pinta was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and killed in captivity near the start of the war, said the Israeli government.

This comes two days after the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages were retrieved. Fifty-five hostages remain in Gaza, of whom Israel says more than half are dead.

Israel’s defence minister said on Saturday that Mr Pinta’s body was retrieved from the Rafah area. He had come to Israel from Thailand to work in agriculture.

The army said he was taken into Gaza by the Mujahideen Brigades, the small armed group that it said had also abducted and killed Shiri Bibas and her two small children. It is also the same group that took the two Israeli-American hostages, Judih Weinstein and Gad Haggai, whose bodies were retrieved by the army on Thursday.

Israel said it found Mr Pinta’s body based on information received from the hostage taskforce and military intelligence.

A statement from the hostage forum, which supports the hostages, said it stands with Mr Pinta’s family and shares in their grief. It called on the country’s decision makers to bring home the remaining hostages and give those who have died a proper burial.

Thais were the largest group of foreigners held captive by Hamas militants. Many of the Thai agricultural workers lived in compounds on the outskirts of southern Israeli kibbutzim and towns, and Hamas militants overran those places first. A total of 46 Thais have been killed during the conflict, according to Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Before Mr Pinta’s body was retrieved, three Thai hostages remained in captivity and two were confirmed dead. The fate of Mr Pinta was uncertain until Saturday, according to the hostage forum.

The retrieval of Mr Pinta’s body comes as Israel continues its military campaign across Gaza. Hospital officials said they received the bodies of nearly two dozen people on Saturday.

Four strikes hit the Muwasi area in southern Gaza between Rafah and Khan Younis. In northern Gaza, one strike hit a flat, killing seven people including a mother and five children. Their bodies were taken to Shifa hospital.

Israel said on Saturday that it is responding to Hamas’s “barbaric attacks” and is dismantling its capabilities. It said it follows international law and takes all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.

Staff at Nasser hospital where six of the bodies were taken, said they were killed while on their way to get food assistance.

Israel’s army said on Saturday that despite prior warnings that the area is an active combat zone during night-time hours, several suspects attempted to approach army troops operating in the Tel al-Sultan area overnight “in a manner that posed a threat to the troops”. The army said the troops called to drive them away but as they continued advancing they fired warning shots. The army said it was aware of reports of casualties.

An army official said the warning shots were fired around half a mile from the aid distribution site.

Shootings have erupted frequently in the vicinity of new hubs where desperate Palestinians are being directed to collect food. The hubs are being run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a newly-formed group of mainly American contractors. Israel wants GHF to replace humanitarian groups in Gaza that distribute aid in co-ordination with the UN.

Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid under the UN-led system. But the UN and aid groups deny there is a significant diversion of aid to militants, and say the new system – which they have rejected – allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and will not be effective.

It was unclear if the sites opened on Saturday.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and abducted 251 hostages. They are still holding 55 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages from Gaza and recovered dozens of bodies.

Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The offensive has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of roughly two million Palestinians.