Body of Thai migrant held in Gaza returns home
Sonthaya Oakkharasri was 30 years old when he was killed in the 2023 attack on Israel.
Workers carry a coffin containing the body of Sonthaya Oakkharasri, a Thai labourer who was taken hostage by Hamas, as it arrives at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Samut Prakarn, Thailand on Oct 23, 2025. (Photo: AP/Sakchai Lalit)
BANGKOK: The body of a Thai farm labourer killed during the Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel and held by Hamas in Gaza was repatriated to Thailand on Thursday (Oct 23), officials said.
The remains of Sonthaya Oakkharasri arrived at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport from Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli authorities confirmed this week that they had received Sonthaya's body and formally identified him.
Under the truce, Hamas has returned the final 20 surviving hostages it was holding and so far released 15 of another 28 who died.
Nearly 30,000 Thais work in Israel, according to Thailand's labour ministry, mostly in the agricultural sector.
Sonthaya was 30 years old and worked at the Beeri kibbutz when he was killed in the 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war.
Thailand's Labour Minister Treenuch Thienthong and Israel's ambassador to Thailand Alona Fisher-Kamm laid wreaths during a repatriation ceremony of Sonthaya's body at the airport on Thursday.
Sonthaya's mother told local media she was devastated but grateful that her son's body would return to his hometown in northern Nong Bua Lamphu province.
His body will be sent for funeral rites according to Buddhist tradition, and the Thai government will provide compensation of up to US$54,000 to his family, local outlet Thairath said.
The Thai foreign ministry told AFP on Thursday that 47 Thai nationals have been killed in the two-year conflict.
At least 68,234 people have been killed in Gaza since the outbreak of the war, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.
Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
