Pongsathorn Khunsri, 25: Thai worker sought to build mom a new home

Pongsathorn “Green” Khunsri, 25, an agricultural worker from the Nakhon Ratchasima province of northeastern Thailand, was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7 in Kibbutz Re’im.

Pongsathorn was at Kibbutz Re’im, not far from the Gaza border, where he worked as a farmhand, when the Hamas attack began. He and his coworkers headed for the nearby bomb shelter when the sirens rang, as they had been taught in such scenarios.

When they heard voices outside, they assumed it was IDF soldiers coming to rescue them. So the group of six walked out of the structure only to encounter around 10 Hamas terrorists.

They shot Pongsathorn and his colleague Kiattisak Patee dead on the spot, and took the four others hostage.

“We shouted, ‘Thailand, Thailand’,” Anucha Angkaew, who was kidnapped and later released, told Reuters. “But they didn’t care.”

Pongsathorn’s body was flown home for his funeral, arriving back in Thailand on October 20. His cremation ceremony was held on October 21. He is survived by his mother and two siblings.

His mother, Surangkhana, told the Bangkok Post that she was “shocked and speechless when I heard the news.”

“I wished for a miracle. I wished him to return home safely. Sadly, there is no miracle,” she said.

She said her son had been working on an Israeli farm for a year, hoping to earn more money and build her a new house.

“I never imagined my son would die like this in a faraway land. Many Thais have worked there, but why did it happen to be my son who was captured and killed?” she said.

Speaking to another local news outlet, Surangkhana described her son as “a good-natured person, loud and brash but sincere. His friends love him.”

She said he was working in Israel to provide her with a better life, “but if I had a choice, I would rather starve and have my child come home alive.”

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