Stay in Israel, or flee? Thai workers caught up in Hamas attack and war are faced with a dilemma

Thai workers who were evacuated from Israel arrive at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Samut Prakarn Province, Thailand, on Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/File)
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Updated 03 November 2023
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Stay in Israel, or flee? Thai workers caught up in Hamas attack and war are faced with a dilemma

  • More than 7,000 Thais working in Israel have returned home on evacuation flights since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, but some 23,000 have decided to stay
  • At least 32 Thais have been reported killed, 23 are believed to have been abducted by Hamas, and many more may be missing

BANGKOK: When Hamas militants stormed into Israeli villages and towns along the border of the blockaded Gaza Strip last month, many Thai migrant agricultural workers shared the fate of hundreds of Israelis who were killed, kidnapped or forced to run for their lives.
Since that day nearly a month ago, more than 7,000 of some 30,000 Thais working in Israel have returned home on government evacuation flights. But many others have decided to stay, choosing to take the risk for the opportunity to earn wages far higher than at home.
Thailand reports that at least 23 Thais are believed to have been abducted by Hamas, which rules Gaza. It’s the largest single group of foreigners held by the militant group. Many more may be missing and 32 have been reported killed.
In a visceral illustration of the fate met by some, Israel’s UN envoy drew a rebuke from Thailand’s Foreign Ministry after showing the General Assembly a video last week of what he said was a Hamas fighter decapitating a Thai agricultural worker with a garden hoe as he lay on the ground.
“Such horrific brutality has stirred a sense of outrage not only among Thais, but undoubtedly people throughout the world,” the ministry said, criticizing the decision to show it as disrespectful to the victim and his family.
‘Please help my son stay safe’
Like many other Thai agricultural laborers in Israel, Natthaporn Onkeaw had been his family’s main breadwinner, sending money home regularly after going to Israel to work on a kibbutz in 2021.
The 26-year-old was among those abducted by Hamas, said his mother, 47-year-old Thongkun Onkeaw, who lives in a poor rural area in northeastern Thailand near the border with Laos.
He was one of the few Thai captives pictured in a photo released by Hamas whose names were later confirmed by the Thai Labor Ministry. His mother said she had not heard from him since he was taken, and no officials have given her or her husband any updates.
“I can only pray: Please help my son stay safe,” she told The Associated Press.
Thai media has followed developments in the conflict closely, with regular reports on the plights of the workers who have fled or chosen to stay, as well as what little is known about the hostages.
A video of one man, who was purported to be a Thai migrant worker being dragged away in a chokehold by a militant, has been widely circulated on social media. Identified as 26-year-old Kong Saleo by his wife, Suntree Saelee, he was allegedly taken from an avocado orchard when Hamas militants raided the worker’s camp.
“When I saw the picture and the clip, I knew it was him,” Suntree was quoted as saying in the Bangkok Post. “I am concerned for his safety. Please help him.”
Thai workers looking for higher wages
Farm laborers from Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia seek work in more developed countries where there is a shortage of semi-skilled labor — at wages considerably higher than what they earn at home.
Israel started bringing in migrant workers in earnest after the first Intifada, the 1987-93 Palestinian revolt, after employers began to lose trust in Palestinian workers.
Most came from Thailand, and they remain the largest group of foreign agricultural laborers in Israel today. The countries implemented a bilateral agreement a decade ago specifically easing the way for Thai agricultural workers. Many Palestinian workers had since returned, and before the Hamas attack about half of Israel’s workforce was made up of foreign and Palestinian laborers.
In recent years, Israel has come under criticism over the conditions in which the Thai farm laborers work. Human Rights Watch, in a 2015 report, said they often were housed in makeshift and inadequate accommodations and “were paid salaries significantly below the legal minimum wage, forced to work long hours in excess of the legal maximum, subjected to unsafe working conditions, and denied their right to change employers.” A watchdog group found more recently that most were still paid below the legal minimum wage.
To attract foreign workers back to evacuated areas, Israel’s Agriculture Ministry has said it will extend their work visas and give them bonuses of about $500 a month. The offer is tempting, compared to the approximately $1,800 lump sum Thailand’s government has made available to aid Thais fleeing Israel.
Beyond the official offers, Thailand’s government has warned that scammers have been messaging family members claiming to be looking to pay back wages or benefits, only to collect personal information and trick them into transferring money.
When the Israeli chicken farm where Sompong Jandai had been working since July was rocked with explosions in the early days of the Israel-Hamas war — sparked by Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel — the 31-year-old first thought about going home.
But two things changed his mind: the salary he makes — more than eight times what he’d earn in Thailand — and knowing he can send the bulk of it home to support his wife and four children and pay off loans he took to finance the move to Israel.
“At first I thought about leaving,” he said. After being initially evacuated to a safer area, he came back to work at the farm.
Thailand’s efforts to get help
Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a telephone conversation Wednesday for help with Thais hostages.
Srettha has also been urging workers to come home, and wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday that the conflict is likely to expand.
“I would like to emphasize that the safety of our people is the most important thing,” he wrote. “Please return to our home.”
A Thai parliamentary delegation last week traveled to Iran, a Hamas ally, to meet with a Hamas representative and approach the issue from the other side.
Areepen Uttarasin, a Thai official who led the delegation, told reporters that the Hamas representative said the group would “try every possible way for all Thais held captive to return safely.” He did not identify the Hamas representative but said that he was told any releases had had been complicated by ongoing fighting.
In Israel, Yahel Kurlander, a volunteer who has been helping Thai workers in the aftermath of the attack, said she knows of at least 54 missing or kidnapped Thais. She said many bodies haven’t been identified yet.
Hours after the Hamas attack, Kurlander, a sociologist with Israel’s Tel-Hai College who specializes in agricultural labor migration with a focus on Thai workers, said she and other scholars and members of nongovernmental organizations started talking about what they could do to help.
“We just came to this realization,” she said. “If we won’t gather together and reach a hand to the Thai workers, nobody will.”
The first priority was to evacuate “highly traumatized” workers and provide food and other aid, she said. Now they’re reaching out to families of the missing, trying to gather details about tattoos or other identifying marks, and also help those who fled the Hamas rampage to return home or find new work. It’s important, she said, to give the workers “the freedom of choice.”
For Siroj Pongbut, that choice was to return home — at least until the fighting ends — even though he doesn’t make enough farming in Thailand to feed his wife and three children. The 27-year-old had been working as a farmhand in Israel for less than a month after more than a year of bureaucracy and borrowing money for the trip.
From that Saturday morning when Hamas attacked, he said he could hear sirens and explosions from the tomato farm where he worked. He made up his mind it wasn’t worth the risk to stay; about 150 of his coworkers at the farm stayed in Israel.
“I don’t know how it is going to be in the future,” he said by telephone while awaiting an evacuation flight from Tel Aviv last week. “I’m worried that it will become more serious.”


ICE agents asked to leave Dodger Stadium parking lot, team says

Updated 10 sec ago
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ICE agents asked to leave Dodger Stadium parking lot, team says

LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles Dodgers organization said Thursday that it asked US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to leave the Dodger Stadium grounds after they arrived at a parking lot near one of the gates.
Dozens of federal agents with their faces covered arrived in SUVs and cargo vans to a lot near the stadium’s Gate E entrance. A group of protesters carrying signs against ICE started amassing shortly after, local media reported.
“This morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots. They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization,” the team said in a statement posted on X.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the agents were not trying to enter the stadium.
“This had nothing to do with the Dodgers.  vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement,” she said in an email.
The team said the game against the San Diego Padres later Thursday will be played as planned.
Television cameras showed about four agents remained at the lot Thursday afternoon while officers with the Los Angeles Police Department stood between them and dozens of protesters, some carrying signs that read “I Like My Ice Crushed” and chanting “ICE out of LA!”
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez arrived at the stadium and said she had been in communication with Dodger officials and the mayor’s office.
“We’ve been in communication with the mayor’s office, with the Dodgers, with Dodgers security, about seeing if they can get them moved off their private property,” she told KABC-TV. “Public property is different. Private property — businesses and corporations have the power to say, ‘Not on my property,’ And so we’re waiting to see that movement happen here.”
Protests began June 6 after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in Los Angeles. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire the following days, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
The team has yet to make a statement regarding the arrests and raids. The Dodgers’ heavily Latino fan base have been pushing for the team to make a public statement and ignited a debate online about its stance on the immigration crackdown happening in Los Angeles.
The Trump administration has activated more than 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines over the objections of city and state leaders. Dozens of troops now guard federal buildings and protect federal agents making arrests.
The demonstrations have been mostly concentrated downtown in the city of around 4 million people. Thousands of people have peacefully rallied outside City Hall and hundreds more protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids.
Despite the protests, immigration enforcement activity has continued throughout the county, with city leaders and community groups reporting ICE present at libraries, car washes and Home Depots. School graduations in Los Angeles have increased security over fears of ICE action and some have offered parents the option to watch on Zoom.


Zelensky appoints new ground forces chief

Updated 17 min 25 sec ago
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Zelensky appoints new ground forces chief

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Voloydmyr Zelensky on Thursday appointed Gennadiy Shapovalov as commander of the country’s ground forces, replacing a previous commander who resigned following a deadly Russian strike on an army training ground.
Shapovalov worked as a military aid liaison in Germany and previously commanded Ukraine’s southern military district.
In his evening address, Zelensky said he hoped Shapovalov would bring “real combat experience” to the role and called for changes in the Ukrainian army, which is struggling to hold off Moscow’s forces more than three years into Russia’s invasion.
“Changes are needed, this is a mandatory issue,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
Moscow’s forces have been advancing across the front line for over a year and have been making inroads in Ukraine’s Sumy region, which the Kremlin had not occupied since the start of the war.
Peace talks on ending the conflict have stalled in recent weeks and Kyiv’s biggest ally, Washington, is now focusing its attention on the Middle East.
Russia says it is open to a peace settlement but Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging talks to prolong the fighting.


EU countries seek ban on trade with illegal zones of Israel

Updated 19 June 2025
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EU countries seek ban on trade with illegal zones of Israel

  • Bloc set to discuss relations with Israel next week
  • ICJ says countries’ trade should not support settlements

BRUSSELS: Nine European Union countries have called on the European Commission to come up with proposals on how to discontinue EU trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday.
The letter, addressed to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, was signed by foreign ministers from Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner, accounting about a third of its total goods trade. Two-way goods trade between the bloc and Israel stood at 42.6 billion euros ($48.91 billion) last year, though it was unclear how much of that trade involved settlements.
The ministers pointed to a July 2024 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, which said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there are illegal. It said states should take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that help maintain the situation.
“We have not seen a proposal to initiate discussions on how to effectively discontinue trade of goods and services with the illegal settlements,” the ministers wrote.
“We need the European Commission to develop proposals for concrete measures to ensure compliance by the Union with the obligations identified by the Court,” they added.
Israel’s diplomatic mission to the EU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said Europe must ensure trade policy is in line with international law.
“Trade cannot be disconnected from our legal and moral responsibilities,” the minister said in a statement to Reuters.
“This is about ensuring that EU policies do not contribute, directly or indirectly, to the perpetuation of an illegal situation,” he said.
The ministers’ letter comes ahead of a meeting in Brussels on June 23 where EU foreign ministers are set to discuss the bloc’s relationship with Israel.
Ministers are expected to receive an assessment on whether Israel is complying with a human rights clause in a pact governing its political and economic ties with Europe, after the bloc decided to review Israel’s adherence to the agreement due to the situation in Gaza.


Review: Shawn Chidiac’s stand-up comedy shows London what ‘Laughing in Translation’ is

Updated 19 June 2025
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Review: Shawn Chidiac’s stand-up comedy shows London what ‘Laughing in Translation’ is

  • Shawn Chidiac is one of the best up-and-coming Arab comedians with over 645,000 followers on Instagram
  • His comedic qualities stem from his ability to perform personas and accents inspired by the people he interacts with in Dubai

LONDON: The stand-up comedian Shawn Chidiac’s first challenge upon arriving in London last week was getting used to looking right before crossing the road. However, when he finally did, he bumped into a cyclist who swore at him and sped off.

Chidiac, who is based in the UAE, swore back angrily at the cyclist, an act he would not do in Dubai but felt compelled to since he was on an island where 57 percent of people swear most days. He was in the UK to perform “Laughing in Translation,” his first solo stand-up comedy show since he became a full-time comedian and content creator in 2023.

With over 645,000 followers on his @myparents_are_divorced page on Instagram, he is one of the best up-and-coming Arab comedians. Chidiac’s parents are, indeed, divorced, and the audience at the nearly sold-out show at Shaw Theatre needed no reminder of this. Some of them were eager to share with him that their parents were also divorced.

 The UAE-based comedian Shawn Chidiac performs his ‘Laughing in Translation’ stand-up comedy show at Shaw Theatre in London, UK, June 15, 2025. (AN Photo: Bahar Hussain)

In a previous conversation with Arab News, the comedian said he likes “connecting as many people as possible through (comedy stories about my) upbringing. Whoever has lived in the Gulf will have a similar story or narrative in their minds.”

Before delving into his childhood and adult life experiences in Dubai, he guided the audience through a brief inner journey, using the commanding, deep voice of an Indian yoga guru, asking them to close their eyes, take a deep breath, and exhale. The audience — mostly young people, some of whom were Arabs or had Arab roots — struggled to maintain a sense of calm.

One of Chidiac’s comedic qualities is his ability to perform personas and accents inspired by the people he interacts with or has witnessed throughout his life in the Gulf, which became a melting pot of nationalities, languages, religions, and cultures. He was born in Canada to a family originally from Lebanon, but they later moved to Dubai, where he was primarily raised by his mother.

He told the crowd that he went to the Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, expecting an English narrator dressed in a three-piece suit, similar to those he had seen in “Downton Abbey” and other historical TV dramas. Instead, he encountered a man from Punjab complaining about the increasing number of immigrants in the UK.

Audience attending Shawn Chidiac's ‘Laughing in Translation’ stand-up comedy show at Shaw Theatre in London, UK, June 15, 2025. (AN Photo: Bahar Hussain)

Thanks to the “Chinese DVD man” who roamed the neighborhoods of Dubai, Chidiac was able to keep up with the latest comedy shows and newly released films that his classmates were watching while he attended an expensive school where he was the poorest student. As he was known, the “Chinese DVD man” always had a secret compartment in his suitcase, which did not contain action, racing, or historical movies but another, unnamed genre that sold out quickly.

Chidiac told Arab News that such stories “(come from) the people I know and see, and the things I do, and my interaction with them. So, the more interaction I have, the better it is, which is hard because I’m a massive introvert.”

His interactions in Dubai span many nationalities and cultures. Whether in hospital, where he recently endured the ordeal of kidney stones and had to communicate with a Filipino nurse and an Egyptian doctor, or on a horse riding date with a British woman, which unexpectedly landed him in the sand. When the doctors presented him with options for removing the kidney stones, he chose the shockwave lithotripsy. “As an Arab, I chose the explosives,” he said.


Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi marks 80th birthday in junta jail

Updated 19 June 2025
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Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi marks 80th birthday in junta jail

  • She was the figurehead of Myanmar’s decade-long democratic thaw, becoming its de facto leader
  • But the generals snatched back power in a 2021 coup, and she was locked up on various charges

YANGON: Myanmar’s deposed democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked her 80th birthday in junta detention on Thursday, serving a raft of sentences set to last the rest of her life.

Suu Kyi was the figurehead of Myanmar’s decade-long democratic thaw, becoming de facto leader as it opened up from military rule.

But as the generals snatched back power in a 2021 coup, she was locked up on charges ranging from corruption to breaching Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and is serving a 27-year sentence.

“It will be hard to be celebrating at the moment,” said her 47-year-old son Kim Aris from the UK. “We’ve learned to endure when it’s been going on so long.”

He has run 80 kilometers (50 miles) over the eight days leading up to her birthday, and collected over 80,000 well-wishing video messages for his mother.

But Suu Kyi will not see them, sequestered in Myanmar’s sprawling capital Naypyidaw from where the military directs a civil war against guerilla fighters, many of whom took up arms in response to the toppling of her government.

Aris said he has heard from his mother only once via letter two years ago since she was imprisoned.

“We have no idea what condition she’s in,” he said, adding that he fears she is suffering from untreated medical problems with her heart, bones and gums.

Myanmar junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP late on Thursday Suu Kyi “is in good health,” without providing any further details.

No formal celebrations took place in junta-held parts of Myanmar, but a gaggle of followers in military-controlled Mandalay city staged a spontaneous protest ahead of her birthday, local media said.

A few masked protesters showered a street with pamphlets reading “freedom from fear” and “happy birthday” as one member held up a portrait of Suu Kyi in shaky camera footage shared on social media.

“Do you still remember this great person?” asked one of the protesters in the video, which AFP has not been able to independently verify.

Other small protests were also reported, including in a rebel-contested area of northern Sagaing region where women marched holding roses in tribute to the former leader, who famously wore garlands of flowers in her hair.

While Suu Kyi remains hugely popular in the majority Buddhist country, her status as a democracy icon abroad collapsed before the military takeover after she defended the generals in their crackdown against the Rohingya.

Hundreds of thousands of the Muslim minority were sent fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh under her rule, though some argued she was powerless against the lingering influence of Myanmar’s military.

Nonetheless institutions and figures that once showered Suu Kyi with awards rapidly distanced themselves, and her second round of imprisonment has received far less international attention.

Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar independence hero Aung San, became a champion of democracy almost by accident.

After spending much of her youth abroad, she returned in 1988 to nurse her sick mother but began leading anti-military protests crushed by a crackdown.

She was locked up for 15 years, most of it in her family’s Yangon lakeside mansion where she still drew crowds for speeches over the boundary wall.

The military offered freedom if she went into exile but her poised refusal thrust her into the spotlight and won her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

Suu Kyi was released in 2010 and led her National League for Democracy (NLD) party to electoral victory in 2015, never formally in charge as army-drafted rules kept her from the presidency.

The NLD said in a statement on Thursday she “must be recognized as an essential figure in any credible and inclusive solution to Myanmar’s ongoing crisis.”

But if the octogenarian were released from her current incarceration, Aris predicts she would likely step back from a “frontline position” in Myanmar politics.

The military has promised new elections at the end of this year, but they are set to be boycotted by many groups comprised of former followers of Suu Kyi’s non-violent vision who have now taken up arms.