The deaths of four more Thai workers in a rocket attack near Israel’s border with Lebanon prompted a rare rebuke from Thai officials in Tel Aviv and renewed calls to suspend the deployment of migrant workers to a region where open-ended conflict continues to pose extreme dangers.

Thai officials said four workers were killed and a fifth was injured when rocket fire, believed to have come from Lebanon, hit the town of Metula last Friday.

The deaths bring to 50 the horrific number of Thai people killed since October last year.

46 Thais were among the 1,200 people killed when Hamas militants attacked Israeli towns.

A further 30 Thai citizens were taken to Gaza as hostages, six of whom are believed to remain in captivity. But their safety remains unknown in an area that Israel has destroyed since the October 7 attack.

The war has caused the deaths of an estimated 43,000 Palestinians so far, and about 3,000 Palestinians in Lebanon.