Thawatchai Saetao, 26: Thai worker slain on son’s 2nd birthday
Murdered by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Alumim on October 7
Thawatchai “Seng” Saetao, 26, a laborer from Nan province in northern Thailand, was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7 in Kibbutz Alumim.
In total, 22 Thai and Nepalese workers were killed in Alumim that day, including cousins Dua and Somchai Sae-yang, while others were kidnapped to Gaza.
Seng’s body was not returned home to his family until November 9, 2023, and his cremation ceremony was held in his hometown of Pa Klang on November 13, 2023.
His wife, Sunita, said Seng was on a video call with their 2-year-old son, since it was his birthday, when the attack began.
“During the call, we heard the sound of bombing. He pointed in the direction where the terrorists fired their missiles,” Sunita told a Thai news outlet. “Some fell into his work area, but he was able to dodge them and nothing happened.”
Seng ended the call to see what was going on and said he would call again later, “but [I] could not connect with him after that,” she said.
During their conversation, she said, Seng was promising to buy their son gifts for his birthday.
Then she was informed by one of her husband’s colleagues that he had been killed in the attack. He was initially shot in the leg and stomach, she said, and was still alive, until the Hamas terrorists dragged him outside and shot him in the head, she was told.
Sunita said Seng had been working in Israel for a year and a half, and was sending money home to help them renovate their house and save money for their expenses.
“Right now, our family has no savings left. I don’t know what to do,” she said.
Two weeks after Seng was killed, Sunita took her son to buy a birthday present and told him it was from his father, keeping his promise: “I took my son to buy toys so that he wouldn’t think badly of his father, that he lied,” she told a Thai news outlet.
Sunita said their two year old selected a toy airplane, telling his mother it is “for Dad to fly back on,” and also a toy car, saying it can be for her to “go get Dad.”