Remains that militants in Gaza handed to Israel as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal were those of a Thai agricultural worker, Israeli and Thai officials said Thursday. The return of Sudthisak Rinthalak’s remains leaves just one more hostage to be returned under the agreement.
Sudthisak was an agricultural worker who had been employed at Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit communities in the attack. Israeli officials said the 42-year-old was killed on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led attack in Israel that triggered the Israel-Hamas war and that his body was taken by the militant group Islamic Jihad.
He was officially declared dead on May 16, 2024. Sudthisak’s remains were returned on Wednesday, a day after militants handed over remains that didn’t match either of the last two hostages. Thai Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura said Sudthisak’s family has been notified and thanked the Israeli Government for assistance that led to the release of all 31 Thai hostages taken at the start of the war. Of those, 28 were returned alive, and three were dead.
Thais were the largest group of foreigners to be held in captivity. The Thai Foreign Ministry has said that, in addition to the hostages, 46 Thais have been killed during the war. Israeli Ran Gvili is now the last hostage whose remains have yet to be returned. Gvili was an Israeli police officer who helped people escape from the Nova music festival during the Oct. 7 attack and was killed fighting at another location.
Since the October 10 start of the ceasefire, 20 living hostages and the remains of 27 others have been returned to Israel. In exchange, Israel has released the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians to Gaza. Most remain unidentified.
The return of all the hostages is an essential element of the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire that began in October, which both Hamas and Israel have accused the other of breaking. In exchange, Israel has been releasing Palestinian prisoners.
The plan is still in the early stages, and many questions linger over its implementation. The plan to secure and govern the territory authorises an international stabilisation force to provide security, approves a transitional authority to be overseen by US President Donald Trump and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state.
More violence reported in Gaza
In Gaza, the Kuwait Speciality Hospital in Rafah said on Thursday it had received the bodies of five people, including two children, following an Israeli airstrike in the south of the strip late Wednesday.
Another 32 people were treated for wounds sustained in the strike on the town of Muwasi, the hospital said. Israel said it launched an airstrike targeting a Hamas militant in retaliation for an attack earlier in the day that wounded five Israeli soldiers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas violated the ceasefire when, according to the army, militants emerged from a tunnel and attacked Israeli soldiers in an area under their control.
Relatives angry at ceasefire violation Relatives of the dead Palestinians wept and wailed over their loved ones’ bodies being transported in white body bags through the city of Khan Younis on Thursday. All five of the dead belong to the same family. Blood stains still marked the mattresses on the floor of a tent encampment that was struck.
Some relatives voiced their outrage that people are still being killed during what’s supposed to be a cessation of fighting. Aisha Abu Jazar, a woman living near where the Palestinians were killed, said she was shocked to hear “unusually intense fire” by Israelis overnight.
“They fired a missile at a tent made of cloth, plastic, and wood. The children were asleep. What did the children do to deserve being torn apart in their sleep? What did they do to deserve this?” she said. “We were supposed to be in a ceasefire,” she added.
Israel names new spy chief Netanyahu appointed his military secretary, Maj. Gen. Roman Goffman, as chief of the country’s Mossad spy agency, the prime minister’s office said in a statement Thursday. Goffman replaces outgoing agency boss David Barnea, whose five-year term ends in June 2026. The appointment will be put to the Advisory Committee for Appointments to Senior Positions for ratification. Goffman served as commander of several Israeli army brigades, battalions and divisions before leading the country’s National Ground Training Centre and the Government Operations Headquarters in the Territories, the statement said.
Netanyahu believes Goffman is the most worthy and capable candidate who possesses “exceptional professional abilities” and demonstrates “creativity, initiative, cunning, deep knowledge of the enemy, absolute discretion and secrecy,” the statement said. Gaza’s Health Ministry says 366 Palestinians have been killed there since the start of the ceasefire. Israel still carries out strikes in response to what it has called violations of the truce, and bodies from earlier in the war are being recovered from the rubble.
The war began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed, and more than 250 others were taken hostage. Almost all of the hostages or their remains have been returned in ceasefires or other deals. The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 70,100 since the war began, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run Government.
It is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community. Hamas hand over a body bag believed to contain the remains of a deceased hostage to the Red Cross for transfer to Israeli authorities, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip.
