This week, an official from the Hamas terrorist organization Hisham Qasem said that the group had kidnapped Thai nationals “for their own protection” during the terrorist group’s October 7 attack on Israel.
Notably, Qasem’s remarks come after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 39 Thai nationals during their attack and took an unknown number of hostages.
Qasem began by falsely claiming that the hostages were only “detainees” and that Israel was “shelling” houses located in the kibbutzes.
“[Turkey and Hamas] discussed the release of some of the [Thai] detainees,” he said. “As we said at the beginning of the October 7 operation, these [Thai nationals] were detained for their own protection, because on October 7, the forces of the Zionist army was shelling the houses with people inside – whether members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, [foreign] laborers, or even the Zionist inhabitants of those settlements.”
Hamas had reportedly freed 10 Thai nationals last week as part of a temporary ceasefire deal with Israel.
“Thais were the single biggest group of foreigners taken hostage when Hamas took some 240 people during its Oct. 7 surprise attack on southern Israel,” the Associated Press reported. “Thais working in Israel are mostly employed as semi-skilled farm laborers, at wages considerably higher than those at they can earn at home.”