TEHRAN – The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has reportedly agreed to unconditionally release more than a dozen Thai workers held captive in the Gaza Strip as a result of mediation efforts by Iran.

The Qatari-owned Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper reported that the release of the Thai captives came after the government of Thailand asked Iran to offer its good offices in terms of releasing the Thai nationals held captive in the Palestinian enclave.

Citing an Egyptian source, the newspaper said that, after communicating with the Hamas leadership, Tehran provided the Thai government with information and details regarding the condition of 23 workers who were taken hostage, as they were working in one of the industrial zones in areas adjacent to Gaza. 

The source pointed out that the Palestinian resistance movement confirmed that it would release them based on Iranian mediation, without any conditions.

On Friday, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin confirmed that Thai nationals will be released from Gaza. “I received confirmation of the release of 12 Thai workers from the Gaza Strip,” he said, according to Al-Jazeera, adding that the release of Thai nationals had nothing to do with the Israel-Gaza exchange of captives. 

A dozen of Thai nationals were released on Friday.

Hamas and the Israeli regime have reached a temporary truce in recent days which would also see the two sides exchanging captives. The truce came into effect on Friday morning.