IDF believes Thai hostage Pinta Nattapong was abducted alive, murdered in captivity

Intelligence obtained during a Shin Bet interrogation of a Palestinian terror operative who was detained in Gaza led the IDF to the location of slain Thai hostage Pinta Nattapong, whose body was recovered from southern Gaza’s Rafah yesterday, the military says.

The IDF believes that Nattapong was abducted alive by Mujahideen Brigades terrorists from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, and was murdered in captivity during the first months of the war.

The exact circumstances of his death and date are currently unknown and are under investigation, the military says.

Nattapong was among the hostages whom Israel had grave concerns for their life, though had not until now officially declared him dead.

The IDF says the operation in Rafah yesterday was carried out using “precise intelligence” obtained by the Shin Bet from its interrogation and other information collected by the Hostages Headquarters unit and the Intelligence Directorate.

The Mujahideen Brigades is a relatively small terror group in the Strip that was also responsible for the abduction and murder of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, and well as Gadi Haggai and Judih Weinstein, whose bodies were recovered early Thursday.

The terror group is still holding the body of another foreign national, according to the IDF.