THALI, Thailand — There were cheers and applause as Watchara Sriaoun stepped out of the white van, his hands clasped together to greet the crowd as he finally returned to his village in Thailand after being swept up in a war on the other side of the world.
“I don’t know how to describe it,” said Watchara, 33. “It’s like being reborn.”
Watchara and four other former Thai hostages arrived in Bangkok earlier Sunday, days after being released by Hamas after 15 months of captivity.
The group, which also included Sarusak Rumnao, 32, Sathian Suwannakham, 35, Pongsak Thaenna, 36, and Bannawat Saethao, 27, was released as part of the hostage-prisoners exchange deal Israel struck with Hamas last month.
They were met at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok by family members as well as Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa and the Israeli ambassador to Thailand, Orna Sagiv, before continuing on to their hometowns.
“We were waiting so long for this day,” Watchara’s mother, Wiwwaeo Sriaoun, told NBC News in an interview Sunday in his home village of Thali in the northeastern province of Udon Thani.
“I thank God for leading him home safely,” said Wiwwaeo, 53, who met Watchara at Udon Thani airport along with his father, Tom Sriaoun, 57, and his 9-year-old daughter, Irada.
Though Watchara’s official welcome party is on Tuesday, his home was filled with food for all the people coming to visit in the meantime.
Wiwwaeo said Watchara had told her his captivity was difficult but she didn’t press him for details.
“I told him that he didn’t need to talk about it and when he was ready, he can do so,” she said. “Just come back first.”
According to his mother, Watchara had been an agricultural worker in Israel for more than three years when Hamas carried out its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. Watchara, who was working at Kibbutz Nir Oz near Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip, was among 31 Thai nationals taken hostage, the largest group of foreigners to be held captive.
Twenty-three of them were released in November 2023 during an early ceasefire, while two others were confirmed to have been killed in the attack before their bodies were taken to Gaza. A total of 46 Thai nationals have died in the Israel-Hamas war.
Five of the six remaining hostages were released Jan. 31 as part of the second round of releases by the Palestinian militant group in what Thailand’s ambassador to Israel, Pannabha Chandraramya, said was “one of the happiest days of my life.”
After their release, they spent a few days in a hospital outside Tel Aviv where they underwent medical tests and recuperated. Family members of four of the hostages met them in Israel on Wednesday, the Thai foreign ministry said in a statement.
They were also visited by a Thai delegation that included the foreign minister.
The status of the remaining Thai hostage, Nattapong Pingsa, is unclear, and Hamas is also still holding the bodies of the two Thai hostages who were confirmed dead.
In addition, Hamas is holding another non-Israeli, Nepalese agriculture student Bipin Joshi, as well as the body of a Tanzanian student, Joshua Mollel, who was confirmed dead.
With a population of 9 million, Israel is heavily dependent on foreign labor in sectors such as agriculture, construction and caregiving. While the country has been historically reliant on Palestinian labor, Israel began recruiting foreign workers after the Palestinian revolt that ended in 1993.
Thais arrived in large numbers, drawn by higher wages than they could earn back home, and remain the largest group of foreign agricultural laborers in the country.
Nearly 25,000 Thai workers worked in Israel before the Oct. 7 attack, Chandraramya said.
“They worked tirelessly in the farm, in the kibbutz,” she told reporters last week.
After the attack, many workers fled their jobs in Israel, which began offering higher salaries and launched a recruitment drive in countries including India to secure the critical supply of foreign labor.
Thais have since gone to Israel in bigger numbers than before, and Chandraramya said there were now 38,000 workers in the country.
Watchara said he would not be going back.
“I want to be with my family first,” he said.
Nat Sumon reported from Thali, Thailand, and Mithil Aggarwal reported from Hong Kong.
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