A Thai man who worked in Israel and survived the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack told The Daily Wire he can identify the man seen in recently-released footage of injured hostages at Al Shifa hospital as his longtime roommate.
Mitchai Sarabon, recovering from injuries suffered in the attack, says the man shown on a stretcher with a bloodied hand is his roommate and colleague Phonsawan Pinakalo.
“We did everything together, from cooking and eating,” Sarabon told The Daily Wire through a translator. “I can recognize him even if he only had one leg shown in the video.”
The Israeli Defense Forces released a surveillance video reportedly showing two hostages being moved through the hospital on October 7. It was released as evidence that Hamas is operating inside the hospital, which has been under siege by the Israeli military because of the terrorist activity.
Critics have cast doubt on the footage, saying there is no evidence that the men seen in the videos are hostages. The IDF did not disclose the identity of the injured, though it did say that one was a Thai citizen.
Though his face is blurred in the security camera footage the IDF released, Sarabon says he recognizes Pinakalo, his roommate of nearly four years, by his body shape and the spotted shorts the man in the video is wearing. He provided a photo of Pinakalo that was posted to Facebook the day before the attack showing him wearing the same unique shorts that are visible in the footage.
Phonsawan Pinakalo on Oct. 6 wearing shorts that his roommate says are the same shorts worn by a hostage taken by Hamas on Oct. 7. (Courtesy: Mitchai Sarabon)
“That day we were all celebrating the day off and he wore the shorts late into the night before bed until the morning on October 7 before Hamas came,” he said.
The IDF says the footage is from between the hours of 10:42 a.m. and 11:01 a.m. on Oct. 7 and shows a Nepalese civilian and a Thai civilian who were abducted by Hamas.
“These findings prove that the Hamas terrorist organization used the Shifa Hospital complex on the day of the October 7 Massacre as terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF wrote.
Breaking: the @IDF released cctv footage from the Shifa Hospital with an October 7th time stamp, documenting Hamas terrorists forcibly transporting hostages (a Nepalese civilian and a Thai civilian) through the hospital.
These findings prove that the Hamas terrorist organization… pic.twitter.com/immopC5qyB
— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) November 19, 2023
Pinakalo’s Facebook page has not been updated since the attack.
The IDF declined to comment. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office did not respond in time for publication.
Sarabon said he shared a room with Pinakalo at a compound on the edge of Kibbutz Alumim — 2.5 miles from the Gaza border — where they worked on an orange farm.
“We became friends since we both came to work in Israel,” said Sarabon. “He is a hard worker, and he is always kind. He was kind of a second in command of our group. He likes to make everybody happy, always laughing, smiling, and having fun. He loved to cook and was the kind of person that would always help someone who needed something.”
Sarabon says he thought his friend died that day, and now has “hope” that he is alive.
“I feel scared and now worry about my friend,” he said. “At first I thought he was killed that day, but after seeing the video I hope he is still alive and will return to his family.”
Critics of Israel’s war against Hamas have said there is no evidence that the terrorist group was operating out of the hospital, and argued that the injured men seen in the video weren’t actually hostages.
“These are just critically ill patients being moved, something that often happens in hospitals,” said, for example, Daniel Haqiqatjou, the founder of a Muslim educational organization. “Convenient of you to blur the faces so we can’t see that these are not Israelis at all.”
Sarabon, 32, is himself a survivor of the attack, suffering multiple gunshot wounds from Hamas terrorists, including one in his head. He spent 24 days recovering in an Israeli hospital before returning to Thailand. He said he is unable to use his arm properly and needs treatments every day at the hospital, at his own expense.
32-year-old Mitchai Sarabon says he was shot multiple times by Hamas terrorist on the Oct. 7 attack. (Courtesy: Mitchai Sarabon)
The two roommates are two just nearly 6,000 Thai nationals who were working in southern Israel before Hamas’s attack. Thirty-two citizens of Thailand were killed by terrorists, 19 were injured and 19 are believed to be held captive in Gaza, according to the Thai Foreign Ministry.