Israeli defence minister says farm worker taken by Hamas in 2023 had been ‘murdered in captivity’

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Thai farm worker Nattapong Pinta of Phrae was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct 7, 2023 from Kibbutz Nir Oz in Israel. (Photo: Supplied via Times of Israel)

JERUSALEM – The Israeli military has retrieved the body of Thai hostage Nattapong Pinta, who had been held in Gaza since the Oct 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.

Nattapong’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.

The hostage’s family in Phrae province and Thai officials had been notified of the operation to recover his body, the minister said.

The 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.

According to the Nir Oz community, 117 residents were killed and more than 60% of its houses destroyed during the attack.

The Israeli military said Nattapong 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.

“Nattapong came to Israel from Thailand to work in agriculture, out of a desire to build a better future for himself and his family,” Katz said.

He was “brutally murdered in captivity by the terrorist organisation Mujahideen Brigades”, the minister said.

There was no immediate comment from the militant group.

Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in the 2023 attack, Israel’s deadliest day, and took 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza. Twenty hostages are believed to still be alive, according to Israeli authorities.

The Hamas attacks resulted in the deaths of 46 Thai workers and 31 abductions. Two of the hostages were later confirmed dead, while 23 were freed by the end of that year. Five others were released in January this year, leaving only Nattapong unaccounted for.

Israel responded to the Hamas attacks with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities in the Hamas-run strip, and left much of the enclave in ruins, with a population of more than 2 million people largely displaced.