Beatings, chess and dreams of food: Thai man recalls 50 days in Hamas captivity

When Thai farm labourer Anucha Angkaew scrambled out of the bunker where he had been sheltering from rockets on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip around 7:30 am 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 Palestinian flags on their sleeves. 

"We shouted, 'Thailand, Thailand!' But they didn't care," said Anucha, a soft-spoken 28-year-old with a wispy goatee, one of the only hostages to speak at length about the ordeal.

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.

"I thought I would die," he said on Wednesday, at his family home in rural northeastern Thailand, where he returned this month after 50 days in captivity.

Around 130 still held hostage

He said almost all that time was spent inside two small underground rooms, secured by armed guards and accessed by dark narrow tunnels.

Hamas officials did not immediately respond to a written request for comment on Anucha's account.

At least 240 people were abducted and brought to Gaza on Oct. 7 by Hamas militants, who burst across the border and killed some 1,200 people. More than 100 of the hostages have been released since then.

In retaliation for Oct. 7, Israel mounted a devastating offensive that has killed more than 15,000 people, according to figures from Palestinian health officials deemed reliable by the United Nations.

Some 130 people, including eight Thais, remain captive.

Once in Gaza, the uniformed militants handed the Thais to a small group of men who took them to an abandoned house and tied their hands behind their backs.

Repeated beatings

The Thais were joined by a terrified 18-year-old Israeli, a man Anucha said he knew from Kibbutz Re'im where he worked on an avocado farm.

Beatings began shortly after, as their captors punched and kicked them.

"We shouted, 'Thailand, Thailand!" he said, which eased the intensity of the blows. But the young Israeli wasn't spared.

An hour later, all five were put into another truck that drove for about 30 minutes to a small building that led into a tunnel.

Near the mouth of the tunnel, they were beaten again and photographed, Anucha said, before walking through a dark, roughly metre-wide passage to a small room.

In this windowless space, which measured around 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres and was lit by a bulb, the five were joined by another Israeli man. The militants continued kicking and punching the captives for two days, Anucha said. After that, they persisted with another two days of beatings for the Israelis, who were whipped using electrical wires.

Anucha was not seriously injured, but weeks after his release from captivity, his wrist still bore marks from the restraints.

'I felt hopeless'

The captives slept on the bare sandy floor. The six men were served flatbread twice a day and shared two bottles of water between them that was replenished daily.

Their toilet was a hole in the ground near the room, where they were taken by one of eight guards armed with assault weapons that resembled AK-47s. Guards told them not to talk among themselves.

"I felt hopeless," Anucha said.

Anucha initially counted down the days by the number of meals. After four days, the six were marched to another room.

During the walk, Anucha said the tunnel, which was lit by flashlights carried by their captors, was lined with metal doors.

Their new room was more spacious. They had plastic sheets to sleep on. Three bulbs lit the space. An alcove served as their toilet.

The beatings stopped. The food improved to include nuts, butter and, later, rice.

'Food was a source of hope'

Anucha left scratches on the floor to mark the number of days in captivity. That changed when a guard brought in some papers for them to sign.

The guard left behind a white ballpoint pen. They used it to mark time, draw tattoos and sketch a chessboard on the plastic sheet. Chess pieces were crafted out of a pink-and-green toothpaste box. Anucha craved soi ju, a Thai delicacy of pieces of raw beef dipped in spicy sauce.

"Food was a source of hope," he said, smiling.

Anucha had no inkling of the Israeli raids and bombings aboveground. He often thought of home, his father, his seven-year-old daughter and his partner of 14 years.

On Day 35, a man dressed in black arrived for a brief inspection. From his demeanour and the respectful behaviour of the guards, the captives surmised he was a senior Hamas leader.

'It was like I was reborn'

Their routine resumed, until one day, a guard arrived following their first meal and announced, "Thailand, go home."

The four Thais were led through tunnels for roughly two hours and arrived overground to a Hamas facility, where a handful of female Israeli hostages were also waiting.

Some 11 hours later, they were handed over to the Red Cross, which drove them out of Gaza on Nov. 25.

"I didn't think I would get released," Anucha said. "It was like I was reborn."

But he says the hardest part was still what he saw on Oct. 7.

"I lost my friend in front of my eyes."