Thailand Says Four Nationals Killed Near Israel-Lebanon Border

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese town Al-Ahmadieh on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese town Al-Ahmadieh on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by AFP)
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Thailand Says Four Nationals Killed Near Israel-Lebanon Border

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese town Al-Ahmadieh on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese town Al-Ahmadieh on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by AFP)

Four Thai nationals were killed and one was injured by rocket fire near the town of Metula, close to the border between Lebanon and Israel, Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa posted on the social media platform X on Friday.
Last year, 46 Thais were among the 1,200 people killed when Hamas militants launched an attack across Israeli borders, according to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Thirty Thai nationals were abducted during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, and six are believed to still be in captivity, according to Thai authorities.
The Israeli response to the attack has since laid waste to the Palestinian territory of Gaza and killed tens of thousands of people. Israel has also launched attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, Reuters reported.
Before the conflict, about 30,000 Thai nationals worked in Israel, mostly in the agriculture sector, making up one of the largest groups of migrant workers in Israel.
"Thailand continues to strongly urge all parties to return to the path of peace, in the name of the innocent civilians gravely impacted by this prolonged and deepening conflict," Thai foreign minister Maris said.



Berlin: Germans Should Leave Iran or Risk Being Held Hostage

FILED - 28 October 2024, Berlin: A woman takes part in a rally held in front of the Federal Foreign Office for the German-Iranian Djamshid Sharmahd, who was executed in Iran. Photo: Christophe Gateau/dpa
FILED - 28 October 2024, Berlin: A woman takes part in a rally held in front of the Federal Foreign Office for the German-Iranian Djamshid Sharmahd, who was executed in Iran. Photo: Christophe Gateau/dpa
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Berlin: Germans Should Leave Iran or Risk Being Held Hostage

FILED - 28 October 2024, Berlin: A woman takes part in a rally held in front of the Federal Foreign Office for the German-Iranian Djamshid Sharmahd, who was executed in Iran. Photo: Christophe Gateau/dpa
FILED - 28 October 2024, Berlin: A woman takes part in a rally held in front of the Federal Foreign Office for the German-Iranian Djamshid Sharmahd, who was executed in Iran. Photo: Christophe Gateau/dpa

Germany has long had a travel warning for Iran and asked nationals to leave because, as seen from the execution of a German-Iranian national, Tehran takes German citizens hostage, said a foreign ministry spokesperson in Berlin on Friday.

"We have long had a travel warning for Iran and a request to Germans in Iran to leave the country because we saw from the Jamshid Sharmahd case that Iran is taking German citizens hostage," said the spokesperson at a government news conference.

"We want to spare other German citizens this fate."

Germany ordered the closure of all three Iranian Consulates in the country on Thursday in response to Sharmahd’s execution.

Sharmahd, 69, was put to death in Iran on Monday on terrorism charges, the Iranian judiciary said. That followed a 2023 trial that Germany, the US and international rights groups dismissed as a sham.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X Friday that Germany's closure of Iran's consulates in the country amounted to a "sanction" against Iranians residing in Germany.