October 7 · Personal story
Banawat Sahatan
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
A potato farm in Moshav Yesha, southern Israel
Current outcome
Released alive · January 30, 2025
Released after about 480 days in captivity; reunited with his family in Thailand in February 2025.
01
Before October 7
Banawat came from Pangkae village in Nan province, northern Thailand. His family belongs to the Miao, also called Hmong, ethnic minority. He and his wife Wichayada had three daughters: Alisa, Darin and Areeya, who was about a month old when he was taken. He went to Israel for farm work and had been on a potato farm in Moshav Yesha for about nine months. He earned far more there than he could in Thailand and hoped to pay debts and support his young family.
02
October 7
That morning, Banawat video-called his wife and parents and cooed at the new baby. After explosions sounded, fellow workers went into a bunker. A friend asked him to check whether the rear door was shut; Banawat volunteered. He saw armed men, ran, and was shot in his right hand and shoulder. He fell face down and raised his hands, calling out that he was Thai. He later said his captors took him to a hospital, where his wounds were X-rayed, cleaned and wrapped.
03
Captivity
Banawat said he was first held with two other men in a house, then alone for about a month. Captors moved him secretly about a dozen times, sometimes to makeshift tents and darkened homes. They moved at night and, when taking him outside, covered his head and dressed him as a woman. At one point he was held with two other Thai workers. During severe fighting, he said, captors left the hostages for six days; they ate raw flour and had no gas or electricity. He thought about escaping, but did not know where he could go.
04
Release and reunion
After about 480 days, Banawat was released with four Thai compatriots on January 30, 2025. Thai authorities named him among the five released that day. He arrived in Thailand in early February. At Bangkok airport, he saw his parents, wife and children in person for the first time since his captivity began. His youngest daughter, Areeya, was no longer the baby he had known only through a phone screen.
05
Life at home
Bannawat told ABC that his daughters were initially unsure around him, but soon asked him to play and sleep beside them. The family’s lychee farm in Pangkae became the setting for his first detailed account of captivity. He said compensation would help them build a home and would mean he would not need to migrate for work as he had before. His reunion with Areeya also marked a first: he had never held her before his abduction.