When Thai farm laborer Anucha Angkaew scrambled out of the bunker where he had been sheltering from rockets on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, at around 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, he expected to see Israeli soldiers. Instead, Anucha and his five Thai colleagues were accosted by 10 armed militants, whom he identified as Hamas by the Palestine flags on their sleeves.
"We shouted 'Thailand, Thailand'," said Anucha, a soft-spoken 28-year-old with a wispy goatee. "But they didn't care." Two of the six Thais were killed soon after, including a friend who Anucha said was shot dead in front of him in a random act of violence. The rest were forced onto a truck for a roughly 30 minute ride into Gaza.
Anucha's first person account offers a glimpse into what many hostages endured — and some continue to endure. He described sleeping on a sandy floor and beatings by Hamas captors, who he said singled out Israelis for especially brutal treatment.