Killed and kidnapped in a war not their own: dozens of Thais and Nepalese among Hamas victims
No mercy from Palestinian militiamen in front of the many Asian migrants working as farmers on kibbutzim near Gaza. Some are also among the hostages taken into the Strip. Concern in the Indian and Filipino communities in Israel. Still living in the People's Republic of China is the mother of Noa Argamani, the girl kidnapped at the rave party in the desert whose video immediately went viral.
Tel Aviv (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Victims of a conflict that is not theirs. There are also many Asian families among those mourning the dead of the Hamas incursion into the kibbutzim around Gaza or anxious about the kidnapping of loved ones.
It is no coincidence: the agricultural settlements of southern Israel are one of the areas where the work of migrants arriving from the Far East is most concentrated.
Migrants we have often talked about due to the harsh working conditions imposed by one of the most restrictive legislation in the world: they have residence permits strictly linked to temporary work contracts, without any possibility of accessing Israeli citizenship. Yet they too were treated as "collaborators", without any mercy on the part of the Palestinian commandos.
Two deaths have been confirmed so far by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangkok, as communicated by the deputy minister Jakkaphong Sangmanee, but according to various sources, including Israeli employers, there are a dozen in total, to which should be added eight injured, two of whom are serious and 11 kidnapped by militiamen, the details of three of whom have been released.
The Thai government has announced that it has made a military aviation plane available for the possible launch of an airlift to bring home its citizens who work in the conflict zone close to the Gaza Strip in the Ashkelon areas , Netivot and Sderot. In total, it is estimated that as many as 5,000 of the almost 30,000 workers originally from Thailand employed in Israel lived in the area.
The Ministry of Labor has so far reported the impossibility of establishing the whereabouts of the kidnapped Thais, while the Thai Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, who is traveling on a tour of several Asian countries, has instructed his deputy to follow the situation.
The Israeli ambassador to Bangkok, Orna Sagiv, asked for the solidarity of Thais and to "join in prayer with us for the souls of those who tragically lost their lives and for a rapid end to the violence".
The number of victims from Nepal is also very high: according to news released by the Nepalese embassy in Tel Aviv, there are as many as ten Nepalese victims, mostly agricultural workers who worked in the Amunim kibbutz, one of those attacked on Saturday morning by Palestinian militias.
Two other Nepalese are hospitalized in serious condition, while others who are missing could be among the people kidnapped and taken into the Gaza Strip. In total, there are approximately 4,500 Nepalese citizens currently in Israel.
The story is also being followed with great concern in India, another country that has a significant number of its own emigrant workers in the area affected by Hamas incursions.
When asked by AsiaNews about the fate of the Indian Catholic migrants, sources on site responded: "We have no news of migrants killed or taken hostage, but the situation is very tense and there is a lot of fear for what will happen... Pray for peace".
Another Asian community that is highly apprehensive is the Filipino community, which also has around 30,000 migrant workers in Israel, many of whom work as carers alongside elderly Israelis.
In this case, however, there were few who carried out their work in the cities closest to the border with Gaza. The Manila government's undersecretary for foreign affairs, Eduardo de Vega, spoke of a "small number of Filipinos who have not been traced in southern Israel. Less than 10, about five or six."
Finally, it should be noted that Noa Argamani - the young Israeli citizen kidnapped during the rave party in the desert and whose video went viral in the first hours of the attack - was born in China: her mother still lives in the People's Republic of China.
This circumstance is being discussed a lot on social networks in China at the moment, alongside the stories of Chinese citizens stranded in the country.
“We ask the interested parties to remain calm, exercise moderation and immediately end hostilities to protect civilians and avoid a further deterioration of the situation," - Beijing's Foreign Ministry wrote in a note yesterday.
"The recurrence of the conflict demonstrates once again that the prolonged blockade of the peace process cannot continue. The fundamental way out of the conflict is the implementation of the two-state solution and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.”
(Nirmala Carvalho collaborated)
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19/10/2023 17:47
