ATHENS: Residents were evacuated on Saturday as a wildfire which started in mountainous forests in the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos threatened properties at the beach resort of Vatera.
Thick billowing smoke fanned by strong winds could be seen in the area. One fleeing resident told state TV ERT that her home was on fire.
“We are battling to save homes,” Taxiarchis Verros, mayor of western Lesbos, told the broadcaster.
Vatera, an 8 km (five miles) long sandy beach in the southern part of Lesbos, is a popular tourist attraction.
A wildfire in mountains near Athens earlier this week damaged homes and forced hundreds of people to flee, with authorities calling this summer one of the toughest in the Mediterranean.
Last year, wildfires ravaged about 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) of forest and bushland across Greece during the country’s worst heatwave in 30 years.
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Greek authorities evacuate coastal properties on Lesbos as wildfire spreads
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Greek authorities evacuate coastal properties on Lesbos as wildfire spreads
- Last year, wildfires ravaged about 300,000 acres of forest and bushland across Greece
’We’ll bring him home’: Thai family’s long wait for Gaza hostage to end
NONG KHAI: Two years after Thai worker Sudthisak Rinthalak was killed by Hamas militants, his family in northeastern Thailand is preparing to welcome his remains home and hold a Buddhist ceremony they believe will bring his spirit peace.
Sudthisak was among 47 hostages whose bodies Hamas has returned under the current ceasefire agreement. The handover of deceased hostages was a key condition of the initial phase of the deal aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
Sudthisak’s elder brother Thepporn has spent the past two years fulfilling promises he made to his younger sibling, using compensation money to build a new house, buy pickup trucks for their elderly parents and expand their rubber farm.
But the 50-year-old farmer says none of it matters without Sudthisak there to see it.
“Everything is done but the person I did these things for is not here,” Thepporn said, walking through the rubber plantation in Nong Khai province near the Laos border.
Israel identified Sudthisak’s remains on Thursday after Hamas handed over his body as part of a ceasefire deal. The 44-year-old agricultural worker was captured by Hamas at an avocado farm during its October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and later killed at Kibbutz Be’eri.
The last image his family has of Sudthisak came from a video sent by friends that showed him lying face down with militants pointing guns at him.
“I feel sad because I couldn’t do anything to help him,” Thepporn said. “There was nothing I could do when I saw him with my own eyes. He was hiding behind a wooden frame and they were pointing the gun at him.”
For months, the family waited through multiple hostage releases, hoping Sudthisak would be among those freed alive. Each time brought disappointment.
“Whenever there was a hostage release, he was never included,” Thepporn said.
Sudthisak had gone to Israel to earn money to support his father, Thongma, 77, and mother, On, 80, who live in a farming community from which young people commonly go abroad for work.
His sister-in-law Boonma Butrasri wiped away tears as she spoke about the family’s loss.
“I don’t want war to happen. I don’t want this at all,” she said.
Before the conflict, approximately 30,000 Thai laborers worked in Israel’s agriculture sector, making them one of the largest migrant worker groups in the country.
Thepporn said his brother’s death serves as a warning to other Thai workers considering jobs abroad.
“I just want to tell the world that you’ve got to think very carefully when sending your family abroad,” he said.
“See which countries are at war or not, and think carefully.”
Sudthisak was among 47 hostages whose bodies Hamas has returned under the current ceasefire agreement. The handover of deceased hostages was a key condition of the initial phase of the deal aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
Sudthisak’s elder brother Thepporn has spent the past two years fulfilling promises he made to his younger sibling, using compensation money to build a new house, buy pickup trucks for their elderly parents and expand their rubber farm.
But the 50-year-old farmer says none of it matters without Sudthisak there to see it.
“Everything is done but the person I did these things for is not here,” Thepporn said, walking through the rubber plantation in Nong Khai province near the Laos border.
Israel identified Sudthisak’s remains on Thursday after Hamas handed over his body as part of a ceasefire deal. The 44-year-old agricultural worker was captured by Hamas at an avocado farm during its October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and later killed at Kibbutz Be’eri.
The last image his family has of Sudthisak came from a video sent by friends that showed him lying face down with militants pointing guns at him.
“I feel sad because I couldn’t do anything to help him,” Thepporn said. “There was nothing I could do when I saw him with my own eyes. He was hiding behind a wooden frame and they were pointing the gun at him.”
For months, the family waited through multiple hostage releases, hoping Sudthisak would be among those freed alive. Each time brought disappointment.
“Whenever there was a hostage release, he was never included,” Thepporn said.
Sudthisak had gone to Israel to earn money to support his father, Thongma, 77, and mother, On, 80, who live in a farming community from which young people commonly go abroad for work.
His sister-in-law Boonma Butrasri wiped away tears as she spoke about the family’s loss.
“I don’t want war to happen. I don’t want this at all,” she said.
Before the conflict, approximately 30,000 Thai laborers worked in Israel’s agriculture sector, making them one of the largest migrant worker groups in the country.
Thepporn said his brother’s death serves as a warning to other Thai workers considering jobs abroad.
“I just want to tell the world that you’ve got to think very carefully when sending your family abroad,” he said.
“See which countries are at war or not, and think carefully.”
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