UK – BBC, Dec. 04, 2025
Israel says the remains of a hostage it received from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) via the Red Cross in Gaza on Wednesday have been identified as belonging to Thai agricultural worker Suthisak Rintalak.
The return of the 43-year-old’s body means that only one more dead hostage’s body due to be handed over under the terms of the ceasefire deal now remains in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli government shared “in the deep sorrow of the Rintalak family, the Thai people, and all of [the] fallen hostages’ families”.
It also vowed to work tirelessly to bring home the body of the last hostage, Israeli police officer Master Sgt Ran Gvili, 24.
Suthisak Rintalak was from the town of Rattanawapi in north-eastern Thailand.
He moved to Israel in 2017 as part of a foreign worker programme and was employed on several farms in communities located near the Gaza border, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel.
Israeli and Thai authorities say he had been in the orchards of Kibbutz Be’eri when he was killed in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023. His body was then taken to Gaza and held hostage by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
His mother, On, told Israeli Army Radio that it was “hard for us to digest the news” after being informed that his body had been recovered by PIJ fighters in northern Gaza.
“Two years have passed,” she said. “We felt great sadness when we knew he was no longer among the living.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote on X: “For 789 painful days, Suthisak was held hostage in Gaza. His family back in Thailand have waited in agony for his return. Now, Suthisak can finally be laid to rest with dignity.”
“Hamas’s cruelty continues. Ran Gvili, a police officer who fought and fell heroically on October 7th, is still being held hostage in Gaza. When we say we won’t stop until every last hostage is home, we mean it.”
