When Thai farm labourer Anucha Angkaew scrambled out of the bunker where he had been sheltering from rockets on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip around 7:30am on Oct 7, he expected to see Israeli soldiers.

Instead, Anucha and his five Thai colleagues were accosted by 10 armed fighters, whom he identified as Hamas by the Palestine flags on their sleeves, Reuters reports.

“We shouted ‘Thailand, Thailand’,” said Anucha, a soft-spoken 28-year-old with a wispy goatee. “But they didn’t care.”

Two of the six Thais were killed soon after, including a friend who Anucha said was shot dead in front of him in a random act of violence. The rest were forced onto a truck for a roughly 30-minute ride into Gaza.

Anucha’s first-person account offers a glimpse into what many hostages endured — and some continue to endure. He described sleeping on a sandy floor and beatings by Hamas captors, who he said singled out Israelis for especially brutal treatment.