A love story in Israel, captivity in Gaza and rebuilding in Thailand
BAN HAET, Thailand — It was around 5:30 a.m. that Yo's fiance heard the explosions and shook her awake.
"Let's go to the bunker," he said.
Seeking shelter from incoming rockets had become routine to Nutthawaree "Yo" Munkan, a 35-year-old Thai farmhand who worked in a village called Mivtahim in southern Israel, a few miles from the Gaza border.
But on that day, Oct. 7, the bunker by their home was already packed with people and dogs, so her husband-to-be, Boonthom Pankhong, suggested they go to the one at the fruit-packing factory where they worked, a short bike ride away.
They arrived to find one other Thai worker inside. Together, they listened to the distant crack of rifle fire inch closer and tried to swallow their unease.
Yo whispered to Boonthom: "OK, the Israeli soldiers are coming to rescue us."
But the armed men with severe expressions who appeared in the doorway were wearing military uniforms different from the olive drab fatigues she had seen on Israeli soldiers.
"That's when I knew something was wrong," she recalled.
Yo explained, in frantic Hebrew, that she and Boonthom were from Thailand and worked at the fruit-packing factory. The men grabbed them anyway and loaded them onto a pickup truck. The attack on southern Israel was in full swing.
Even now, Yo cannot bring herself to describe what she witnessed on the drive over.
"We weren't blindfolded," she said. "I saw everything."
The truck arrived in the Gaza Strip to more pandemonium — "missiles and gunshots flying from every direction." Their captors shouted and gesticulated for them
