Israeli military retrieves body of Thai hostage from Gaza

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military has retrieved the body of Thai hostage, Nattapong Pinta, who had been held in Gaza since Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday (Jun 7), as further Israeli airstrikes killed 15 people according to local medics.

Pinta's body was held by a Palestinian militant group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was retrieved from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. 

Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small community near the border, where one in four people was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas-led 2023 attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.

The Israeli military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved this week.

Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura said in a video statement on Saturday that the ministry was "deeply saddened" by Pinta's death. 

He said Pinta was one of three Thais held hostage in Gaza. The other two were confirmed dead in 2024, but Nikorndej said Israel has "not yet been able to retrieve their corpses".

The Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv has contacted Pinta's family to inform them and will work with the Israeli side to return his body to Thailand as soon as possible, he said.

There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, which has previously denied killing its captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.

The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.

Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.

Medics in Gaza said 45 people in total were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the enclave on Saturday.

At least 15 Palestinians were killed and 50 wounded by airstrikes in the Gaza City district of Sabra in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, local health authorities said.

More than one missile landed in the area. The target seemed to have been a multiple-floor residential building, but the explosion damaged several other houses nearby, according to witnesses and media.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment. It later warned people to evacuate the nearby district of Jabalia, saying it was going to strike there after rockets were launched by militants in the vicinity.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday that Gaza's hospitals had sufficient fuel for only three more days and that Israel was denying access for international relief agencies to areas where fuel storage designated for hospitals are located.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli military or COGAT, the Israeli defence agency that coordinates humanitarian matters with the Palestinians.

US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS

The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza's 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.

Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.

On Wednesday, the GHF suspended operations and asked the Israeli military to review security protocols after Palestinian hospital officials said more than 80 people had been shot dead and hundreds wounded near distribution points between Jun 1 and Jun 3.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the UN says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.

Israel is facing growing international pressure over its offensive against Hamas, which has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis and displaced most of its population.

Hamas-led militants took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the Oct 7 attack, Israel's single deadliest day.

Israel's military campaign has since killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, and left much of the densely populated coastal enclave in ruins.

Families of remaining hostages fear that those alive are in danger from the continued Israeli offensive and those dead will be lost forever. Israel says the campaign is aimed at bringing them all back.

More than 40 hostages have been killed in captivity, some in the course of Israeli strikes and others killed by their captors.