Six Thais released by Hamas after weeks as hostages to arrive in Bangkok

Six Thai hostages abducted and held for weeks in the Gaza Strip by Palestinian terror group Hamas will arrive back in the kingdom on Monday, officials say.

At least 32 Thais were abducted by Hamas, with Bangkok’s foreign ministry and Thai Muslim groups working to negotiate their release.

On Monday, at around 2:00 pm (0700 GMT), six are expected to land at the capital’s Suvarnabhumi airport following weeks in captivity.

Since their release, the group have been recuperating in Israel as authorities made preparations to fly them home.

It follows the return of 17 citizens from Thailand at the end of November, during a weeklong temporary truce that saw 105 civilians released from Hamas captivity in Gaza: 81 Israelis, 23 Thai nationals and one Filipino.

Another nine Thais are still among the hostages taken by Palestinian terrorists during Hamas’s October’s October 7 shock assault on Israel, in which 1,200 were killed and 240 hostages were taken.

Thailand had 30,000 citizens in Israel when the raid occurred, the majority of them migrant workers from poorer provinces in the kingdom’s northeast.

Thirty-nine Thais were killed and 19 wounded in the war, with the kingdom evacuating more than 8,500 of its people, according to Thailand’s foreign ministry.