Thailand hopes its farm workers will be among freed hostages

The Israeli government approved on Wednesday the agreement providing for a truce in the Gaza Strip and the release of at least 50 hostages by Hamas. In Thailand, where at least 25 nationals are held hostage in the enclave, families are also feverishly awaiting good news.

Thai negotiators have been saying this for several weeks now: Hamas would have given its agreement to release all of the Thai hostages, but in the absence of a ceasefire, it was until now impossible to move them without risking their life. The partial truce in fighting accepted by Israel on Wednesday, November 22, will therefore make it possible to verify these assertions, and to see whether or not Thai workers will be among the released hostages.

Only women and children?

The press release sent to AFP specifies that the Israeli government has validated “the outline of the first stage of an agreement under which at least 50 abductees, women and children, will be released for four days during which there will be a lull in the fighting”.

The Prime Minister appears confident since he announced in a press conference on Wednesday that good news regarding the hostages was to be expected. Anxiety nevertheless remains, particularly around the question of the priority given to women and children, which does not work in favor of the Thai hostages who are a priori all men, of working age and in good physical condition.

Parallel negotiations

To obtain these promises of release, Thailand had to conduct its own negotiations. Dince the start of the crisis, Thailand has not been invited to the negotiating table between the United States, Israel and Qatar. It sent its own teams, made up largely of representatives of Thailand’s Muslim ethnic minorities, to negotiate with Middle Eastern governments. The country insisted on its absolute neutrality in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and on the condition of workers of its nationals who came to Israel to seek better pay outside of any political considerations.

Likewise, in Berlin, which is fighting to find at least eight people of dual German and Israeli nationality, the authorities say they are activating all leads and exploiting all possible channels to obtain these releases. They are talking in particular with Qatar, considered as a potential mediator by Berlin. Doha is home to the headquarters of Hamas’s political leadership and Qatar speaks to everyone, military experts say. Twice since the start of the conflict, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs has met her Qatari counterpart, each time with the question of hostages at the heart of the discussions.