Thai Farm Workers Returning to Israel May Boost Struggling Agriculture

Thailand’s labor ministry announced on June 24 that it would resume sending workers to Israel, potentially offering a boost to the country’s agricultural sector, which was hard hit by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Almost 30,000 foreigners—including 10,000 Thais and about 10,000 to 12,000 Palestinians—worked on Israel’s farms until the Hamas attack. Some were killed, others were taken hostage, and most of the remainder fled. Thailand said it hoped to have more than 10,000 return by the end of the year. The attack devastated Israel’s agriculture, hitting as it did Israel’s fertile zone east of the Gaza Strip. Many farmers fled. Those who didn’t, or who came back to tend their fields, found their hands tied by a lack of laborers to weed, prune, and otherwise tend crops....