Body of Thai hostage recovered from Gaza, Israel says

Israel has retrieved the body of a Thai national taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack in October 2023, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says.

He said the body of Nattapong Pinta was retrieved during a special operation in the Rafah area of southern Gaza on Friday. The 35-year-old was working as an agricultural labourer in southern Israel when he was kidnapped.

Mr Nattapong is likely to have been killed during his first months of captivity, an Israeli military official said. Before the operation, it was not known whether he was dead or alive.

It comes after the Israeli army recovered the bodies of two Israeli Americans in Gaza earlier this week.

Mr Nattapong was the married father of a young son, the military official said. He had been working at Kibbutz Nir Oz to support his family in Thailand when he was captured by a militant group called the Mujahideen Brigades.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that the mission to recover his body was launched following information from the interrogation of a “captured terrorist”.

After reports of his recovery on Saturday, the BBC tried to reach out to Mr Nattapong’s wife. She did not answer the call but texted back with a picture of her son crying.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group said the recovery comes after “20 terrible and agonising months of devastating uncertainty”.

The group urged the Israeli government to reach an agreement with Hamas to free the remaining captives.

Mr Nattapong is believed to be the last remaining Thai national abducted during the 7 October 2023 attack. Five Thai hostages were released during a ceasefire earlier this year – all of them alive.

The Israeli army retrieved the bodies of an elderly couple, Judy and Gadi Haggai, in the Gazan city of Khan Younis on Thursday.

The couple were killed at the same kibbutz and their bodies were also held by the Mujahideen Brigades, according to the IDF.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led cross-border attack almost 20 months ago, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Some 54 of those captured during the attack remain in captivity, including 31 the Israeli military says are dead.

At least 54,677 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory’s health ministry.