BBC News:
Twelve Thais have been killed and another 11 kidnapped in the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants.
Another eight Thai nationals have also been injured, said Thailand’s foreign ministry on Monday.
The ministry added that air force planes are on standby to fly its citizens home.
There are some 30,000 Thais in Israel, working in fields such as nursing and construction, alongside workers from more than 50 countries.
Labour minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn told AFP that some 5,000 Thai labourers work in the fighting zone, but that Israeli forces had begun moving them to safety. He added that 1,099 workers have registered to return home.
Workers at a farm in Mivtahim, a town near the Gaza Strip, described Hamas militants storming their farm after rockets were fired in the early hours of Saturday.
“The Hamas militants fired a rocket first, then they stormed our farm. I had to run and hide in my bedroom,” Udomporn Champahom told the BBC on Saturday.
Mr Udomporn was later rescued by Israeli soldiers. He said that a fellow Thai who was with him at the time is recovering from a gunshot wound “as big as a bottle cap” on his leg.
Another Thai worker told the BBC: “I was running and crawling underneath a truck then the Hamas pulled me out and pointed the gun at me at point blank before firing to the ground.” The worker, who declined to be named, later managed to escape.
