October 7 · Personal story
Manee Jirachat
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Kibbutz Re’im
Current outcome
Released alive · November 25, 2023
Jirachat was released alive on November 25, 2023, after 50 days in captivity.
01
Before Israel
Manee Jirachat grew up in Thailand’s Isaan region, in Udon Thani province, where he helped neighbors with farm work. Pay was poor, so he followed the route his father had taken to work in Israel about a decade earlier. Manee worked as a gardener and maintenance worker for nearly five years, sent home about $5,700, and did not use his savings for a visit. He made two daily calls to his parents; his father Chumporn had also worked in Israel.
02
October 7
On October 7, 2023, Jirachat was speaking with his father from Kibbutz Re’im when he described gunfire and the sirens began. Chumporn told him to go to the safe room. Manee and five Thai coworkers sheltered there, left when the alarm stopped, then returned as sirens sounded again. When they exited later, armed men took their phones. Manee first thought the men were Israeli soldiers; the unfamiliar patches and shouting unsettled him. The pickup could not hold all six: two were killed, and four, including Manee, were taken to Gaza.
03
In captivity
In a December 7, 2023 interview with CNA, Jirachat said he was held in underground tunnels for 50 days, beaten at the beginning and given food but little conversation. He recalled asking to go home; guards told him he could leave when the bombardment stopped. The Nation later reported that Manee and other Thai workers were struck and initially disbelieved when they said they were Thai workers.
04
Return
Jirachat was among four Thai nationals released on November 25, 2023. His father first heard the news from a friend in Israel and did not believe it until the friend sent a screenshot showing Manee among the freed hostages. Manee returned to Thailand and reunited with his family in Ban Dung, Udon Thani. He had been in the final months of a five-year contract on a farm near Gaza.
05
After his return
At the start of February 2024, Jirachat was ordained as a Buddhist monk at a temple in his village, fulfilling a promise his father had made while hoping for his safe return. Manee described coming through captivity as a rebirth and a second chance. He was offered an extension to his Israel contract, but told CNA in December 2023 that he did not think he could return there; if he worked abroad again, he said, it would be in another country.