By Thai Rath and AP – published by Yahoo!News
AMID calls by academics that the Thai government ask the Israeli government to arm Thai workers for self-defence, secretary to House Speaker Mr. Muk Sulaiman said he strongly opposed this move as it could cause serious damage, Thai Rath newspaper said last evening (Oct. 18).
Muk, secretary to House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Mattha, urged the Thai government to carefully consider proposals that Thai agricultural workers who did not want to return home from Israel be provided with weapons for self-defence because if they were caught armed they would be misunderstood to be mercenaries and this would have a direct impact on Thailand.
“I strongly disagree with this idea. As for measures for Thai workers who want to continue staying in Israel, they should leave dangerous areas.
“In reality, as Israel is small, so almost all areas of the country are dangerous only that there has not been fighting yet,” he said.
He also cleared up the misunderstanding that eight Thai workers were still being held by Hamas, mentioning that none were currently detained by Hamas but he did not know where they were.
Meanwhile Hamas confirmed yesterday that its leader, Yahya Sinwar, was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza and reiterated its stance that hostages the militant group took from Israel a year ago will not be released until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and a withdrawal of Israeli troops.
The group’s staunch position pushed back against a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin a day earlier that his country’s military will keep fighting until the hostages are released and will remain in Gaza to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming.
The stands taken by the two sides signal, at least publicly, that they have not moved any closer to ending their conflict, even as President Joe Biden and other world leaders press the case that Sinwar’s killing is a turning point that should be used to unlock stalled ceasefire negotiations.
Khalil al-Hayya, who was Sinwar’s Qatar-based deputy and represented Hamas during several rounds of ceasefire negotiations, said the former Hamas leader died “confronting the occupation army until the last moment of his life.” Hamas will not return any of the hostages, he said, “before the end of the aggression on Gaza and the withdrawal from Gaza.”
Hamas heralded Sinwar in a statement, calling him a hero for “not retreating, brandishing his weapon, engaging and confronting the occupation army at the forefront of the ranks.”
The statement appeared to refer to a video the Israeli military circulated of Sinwar’s apparent last moments in which a man sits on a chair in a severely damaged building, badly wounded and covered in dust. In the video, the man raises his hand and flings a stick at an approaching Israeli drone.
Sinwar was the chief architect of the Hamas raid on Israel last year that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped another 250. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians but say more than half the dead are women and children.
The war has destroyed vast swaths of Gaza, displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people and has left them struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.
Sinwar’s killing appeared to be a chance front-line encounter with Israeli troops on Wednesday, and it could shift the dynamics of the Gaza war even as Israel presses its offensive against Hezbollah with ground troops in southern Lebanon and airstrikes in other areas of the country.
Hezbollah has fired rockets into Israel nearly every day since the Israel-Hamas war began, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in the country’s north. Roughly 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced by Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground offensive.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, which hailed Sinwar as a martyr who can inspire others in challenging Israel.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike on a crowded tent camp housing people displaced by the war in Muwasi, Gaza Strip, on Sept. 10, 2024. Photo: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana and published by Yahoo!News
First insert: Secretary to House Speaker Muk Sulaiman, right, and his assistant. Photo: Thai Rath
Second insert: Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, on April 13, 2022. Photo: AP/Adel Hana and published by Yahoo!News
Third insert:; Palestinians carry a body from a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on July 13, 2024. Photo: AP/Jehad Alshrafi and published by Yahoo!News
Front Page: Palestinians line up for a meal in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Dec. 21, 2023. Photo: AP/Fatima Shbair and published by Yahoo!News
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