PHNOM PENH: Former Prime Minister Hun Sen said that Cambodians living in Israel should not flee the country while it faces trouble and instructed them to wait for orders of the Israeli government. So far, one Cambodian student has been killed in the conflict between Hamas and Israel.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of his autobiographical TV series, "Son Under the Full Moon" on October 9, the former PM said that Cambodia is not in the habit of abandoning allied countries.

"If the Israeli government does not require us to leave, we must not abandon the people of Israel,” he said. “If you abandon the people of Israel at a time when the people of Israel are in trouble, there is no need for them to go to school or work."

He compared the sudden warfare to the Covid-19 outbreak, when countries started bringing their citizens home from China. The former PM then visited China to show solidarity and send a message to Cambodian students to stay in China.

As a former army chief, he called on the Palestinian Hamas rebels to release their hostages, which include about ten Thai nationals, saying that there is no benefit in keeping and killing hostages.

"I call on Hamas, it is not in your interest to take hostages and kill them, it is useless," he said.

He called on both sides to resolve the conflict peacefully through dialogue, as attacks between Israel and Palestine continue and kill thousands.

He also predicted that Israeli forces would recapture Gaza and called on the Cambodian peacekeeping forces in the region to respect UN instructions.

A decades-long human rights crisis erupted in a surprise attack from militant Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, indiscriminately targeting civilians and kidnapping people. Israel has officially declared war and people in Gaza are essentially trapped as Israel retaliates for the attack. There are over 400 Cambodian students in Israel, mostly in the agricultural sector. Many of them are in the “red zone” and vulnerable to attack. So far, one Cambodian, a third-year veterinary medicine student, has been killed in the violence.