Thai and Filipino workers filling labor gap in Israel get caught up in war between Israel and Hamas

BANGKOK: The first group of Thai workers evacuated from Israel after the past few days’ bloody events in southern Israel and Gaza arrived Thursday in the Thai capital of Bangkok, greeted by anxious relatives and senior officials.

Hamas militants stormed through a border fence Saturday and killed hundreds of Israelis in their homes, on the streets, and at an outdoor music festival. The Israelis have responded with punishing airstrikes and preparations for a possible ground invasion. The conflict has claimed at least 2,600 lives on both sides, including some Southeast Asian workers living in Israel.

The 41 Thais who returned home on a commercial flight of the Israeli airline El Al included two men wounded in the violence who had to use wheelchairs to exit the aircraft.

Farm laborers from Thailand seek work in more developed countries where there is a shortage of semi-skilled labor — at wages considerably higher than they can earn at home.

Tens of thousands of workers in Israel from nations including Thailand and the Philippines send their earnings home to support their families. That money also helps to fire up their native countries’ economies.

But the appearance of Thais and Filipinos on the lists of dead, wounded, and missing in the past few days is a reminder that foreign workers toil in peril of their lives.

About 30,000 Thais are working in Israel, according to the Thai Foreign Ministry, and about 5,000 of them live in the southern area near the border with Gaza.

One of them, Katchakorn Pudtason, said his employer at the farm where he worked initially herded all his workers into a bunker when Saturday’s attacks took place, but after they left it for lunch they could still hear shooting.

As they were being driven back to their workplace, Katchakorn heard more gunshots and felt something hit his knee, he said.

“I thought it was a rock but it went through. So I hit the truck and told the driver to drive away,” he said. He added that he was one of four people in the vehicle who suffered injuries that day. He was one of the two returnees who had to use a wheelchair.

Thailand’s Cabinet ministers for labor, defense, and foreign affairs were at Bangkok’s international airport for the evacuees’ arrival. The government has vowed to look after the evacuees’ physical and mental well-being.

Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said 5,990 Thais have registered to be evacuated and officials are working around the clock to accommodate them.