Five Thai nationals held hostage by Hamas since its attack on Israel have returned home after their release from captivity last month.

Thais were, after Israelis, the nationality most affected by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, with nearly 40 farm workers killed and almost as many captured.

When Surasak Rumnao, 31, left his home in Thailand's rural Udon Thani province three years ago to go across the world to the southern Israeli town of Yesha for agriculture work, his family never imagined they would lose touch with him for over a year when he was kidnapped by Hamas militants in October 2023.