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‘That’s My Son!’ Thai Family Overjoyed as Second Group of Hostages Freed

This undated and unlocated handout photo released on November 25, 2023 by Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows a Thai official (C) posing for a group photo with 10 released Thai hostages in Israel, after they were freed by Hamas. (Handout / Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This undated and unlocated handout photo released on November 25, 2023 by Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows a Thai official (C) posing for a group photo with 10 released Thai hostages in Israel, after they were freed by Hamas. (Handout / Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs / AFP)
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‘That’s My Son!’ Thai Family Overjoyed as Second Group of Hostages Freed

This undated and unlocated handout photo released on November 25, 2023 by Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows a Thai official (C) posing for a group photo with 10 released Thai hostages in Israel, after they were freed by Hamas. (Handout / Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This undated and unlocated handout photo released on November 25, 2023 by Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows a Thai official (C) posing for a group photo with 10 released Thai hostages in Israel, after they were freed by Hamas. (Handout / Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs / AFP)

The mother of a Thai hostage freed from Gaza late on Saturday said she was indescribably happy her son was among the four most recent Thai nationals confirmed as freed from Hamas captivity.

"My granddaughter called me at 5 a.m. saying my son was among the hostages released and I didn't really believe it," Thongkoon Onkaew told Reuters by phone on Sunday. "Then she sent me the photo and I was like, 'That's my son! My son!'"

Thirteen Israelis and four Thai nationals, freed in a second round of releases by the Palestinian militant group, arrived in Israel on Sunday as part of what is meant to be a four-day truce in the war to allow daily exchanges of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said the Thais in the latest release were in good health and eager to contact their families.

"Everybody is safe, on the whole in good mental health and are able to speak normally," he posted on social media platform X.

A first group of 10 Thai hostages were on freed Friday along with 13 Israelis, in return 39 Palestinians from Israel's prisons.

More than 30,000 Thai nationals work in Israel, mostly as farm workers, making up one of the largest migrant worker groups in the country.

Thongkoon said her son, 26-year-old Natthaporn Onkaew, worked in agriculture and was the family's sole breadwinner, sending remittances each month to support his family, including school fees for his 12-year-old sister.

She said she had identified him in a photo released by Hamas, showing him and several other people in the back of a van, dressed in a green shirt and smiling and waving at the camera.

"I’m so happy, I’m so glad, I can’t describe my feeling at all," she said.

Thailand's foreign ministry estimated 18 Thai nationals remained captive after Israel told it the number abducted had increased by two from the previous tally.

"The Thai government will continue to make every effort towards the safe release and return of those remaining Thai nationals," the ministry said in a statement.

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Climate Change Imperils Drought-Stricken Morocco’s Cereal Farmers and Its Food Supply

A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
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Climate Change Imperils Drought-Stricken Morocco’s Cereal Farmers and Its Food Supply

A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)
A farmer works in a wheat field on the outskirts of Kenitra, Morocco, Friday, June 21, 2024. (AP)

Golden fields of wheat no longer produce the bounty they once did in Morocco. A six-year drought has imperiled the country's entire agriculture sector, including farmers who grow cereals and grains used to feed humans and livestock.

The North African nation projects this year's harvest will be smaller than last year in both volume and acreage, putting farmers out of work and requiring more imports and government subsidies to prevent the price of staples like flour from rising for everyday consumers.

"In the past, we used to have a bounty — a lot of wheat. But during the last seven or eight years, the harvest has been very low because of the drought," said Al Housni Belhoussni, a small-scale farmer who has long tilled fields outside of the city of Kenitra.

Belhoussni's plight is familiar to grain farmers throughout the world confronting a hotter and drier future. Climate change is imperiling the food supply and shrinking the annual yields of cereals that dominate diets around the world — wheat, rice, maize and barley.

In North Africa, among the regions thought of as most vulnerable to climate change, delays to annual rains and inconsistent weather patterns have pushed the growing season later in the year and made planning difficult for farmers.

In Morocco, where cereals account for most of the farmed land and agriculture employs the majority of workers in rural regions, the drought is wreaking havoc and touching off major changes that will transform the makeup of the economy. It has forced some to leave their fields fallow. It has also made the areas they do elect to cultivate less productive, producing far fewer sacks of wheat to sell than they once did.

In response, the government has announced restrictions on water use in urban areas — including on public baths and car washes — and in rural ones, where water going to farms has been rationed.

"The late rains during the autumn season affected the agriculture campaign. This year, only the spring rains, especially during the month of March, managed to rescue the crops," said Abdelkrim Naaman, the chairman of Nalsya. The organization has advised farmers on seeding, irrigation and drought mitigation as less rain falls and less water flows through Morocco's rivers.

The Agriculture Ministry estimates that this year's wheat harvest will yield roughly 3.4 million tons (3.1 billion kilograms), far less than last year's 6.1 million tons (5.5 billion kilograms) — a yield that was still considered low. The amount of land seeded has dramatically shrunk as well, from 14,170 square miles (36,700 square kilometers) to 9,540 square miles (24,700 square kilometers).

Such a drop constitutes a crisis, said Driss Aissaoui, an analyst and former member of the Moroccan Ministry for Agriculture.

"When we say crisis, this means that you have to import more," he said. "We are in a country where drought has become a structural issue."

Leaning more on imports means the government will have to continue subsidizing prices to ensure households and livestock farmers can afford dietary staples for their families and flocks, said Rachid Benali, the chairman of the farming lobby COMADER.

The country imported nearly 2.5 million tons of common wheat between January and June. However, such a solution may have an expiration date, particularly because Morocco's primary source of wheat, France, is facing shrinking harvests as well.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization ranked Morocco as the world's sixth-largest wheat importer this year, between Türkiye and Bangladesh, which both have much bigger populations.

"Morocco has known droughts like this and in some cases known droughts that las longer than 10 years. But the problem, this time especially, is climate change," Benali said.