[Thai farmworkers]… chose to remain out of economic necessity, he said, despite Hamas combatants shooting civilians in their village.

…[Agriculture] imports almost all of its labour from Thailand…

“There was a strategic decision that was made on the part of the Israeli state to replace Palestinian workers with migrant workers so they wouldn’t have this dependence,” [anthropologist Matan Kaminer] told Nikkei Asia.

Under pressure from the US and non-governmental groups over labour rights issues, the worker pipeline was formalised in 2011…

…cases of mistreatment of Thai workers on Israeli farms have continued to plague the sector. A 2020 snapshot …found 83 per cent were paid below the legal minimum wage. Many do not receive legally assured entitlements and face unsafe working conditions and difficulty accessing medical care…

Similar concerns were documented by Human Rights Watch in a 2015 report, while the 2022 US state department Trafficking in Persons Report characterised the treatment of some Thai workers in Israel’s agricultural sector as forced labour…

“In many of the sites to which workers have been evacuated, they were pressured to go to work immediately, and in others the hosts have clarified that those who wish to stay another week will have to work,” [Aid for Farm Workers]… said in a statement…