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00:00This has been a welcome well over a year in the making.
00:04Surasakrumnao, having been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October 2023,
00:10arrived back to his home town in Thailand on Sunday.
00:15He was greeted by his loved ones.
00:19I feel so happy to have my son back home.
00:24I'm happy as long as he's here.
00:28He was just one of the five Thai workers who earlier arrived at Bangkok's airport,
00:33finally bringing to a close their ordeal,
00:36to the relief of their families waiting for them.
00:39This is the second group of Thai hostages to have been released,
00:43after a first group was freed back in November 2023,
00:47at the beginning of the war.
00:50At a press conference held at the airport just after their arrival,
00:53the men and their families said they couldn't be happier.
00:57We are very grateful and glad to return to our homeland again.
01:06We are really thankful.
01:11It's like a miracle that my husband has come back.
01:15Over the past 15 months I always kept hope.
01:19I always told my children that one day their father would come back.
01:2531 Thai nationals were captured on October 7th, 2023.
01:30Many lived in agricultural compounds on the outskirts of Kibbutz Sim in southern Israel.
01:35There's still no information on the whereabouts of Natapong Pingsa,
01:39the last Thai worker thought to be held inside Gaza.