Escalation of military exchanges could move towards ‘state of war’, Acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai says.
The death toll from clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops has risen to at least 14 in Thailand and one in Cambodia, according to authorities, as more than 120,000 people living along both sides of the border separating the two countries flee the ongoing fighting.
Deadly fighting continued for a second day on Friday as both countries traded heavy artillery and rocket fire, the bloodiest military confrontation between the two Southeast Asian neighbours in more than a decade.
“The situation has intensified and could escalate into a state of war”, Acting Thai PM Phumtham Wechayachai ominously told reporters on Friday. For now, the clashes have involved heavy weapons, he added.
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet said he had backed a ceasefire proposal put forward by his Malaysian counterpart and chair of ASEAN, Anwar Ibrahim, but added that Thailand withdrew its backing of the plan after initially agreeing to it. In a Facebook post, Hun Manet described Thailand’s decision as “regrettable”.
“The key to resolving the current armed conflict between Thailand and Cambodia is the genuine willingness of the Thai side to accept a ceasefire,” Hun Manet said. There was no immediate reaction from Thailand.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Nikorndej Balankura said earlier on Friday that while Thailand insists it has the tools to resolve the issue bilaterally, it has not ruled out future mediation by regional partners. “Our doors have always been open to talks … We are still waiting for positive reactions from the Cambodian side,” Nikorndej said.
On possible third-party mediation, he added: “It’s a bit too premature for me right now to say that we are ready for any mediation … but if we are going to talk about anyone to step in and help, countries in ASEAN … would be best suited.”
The ongoing clashes have taken place in 12 locations along the disputed border, up from six the day before, a Thai military official said on Friday, indicating a widening of the fighting. Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a military spokesperson, told a news conference that Cambodia had continued to use heavy weapons.
Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health reported that at least 13 civilians and one soldier were killed in Thailand when fighting broke out on Thursday, and a local provincial official in Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey border province told the Reuters news agency that one person was killed and five wounded in Thai attacks.
Some 100,672 people from four Thai provinces bordering Cambodia have been moved to shelters, Thailand’s Ministry of Interior was cited by the AFP news agency as saying.
Quoting officials in Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province, the Khmer Times news organisation said about 20,000 residents have evacuated from the country’s northern border with Thailand.
Thailand has opened more than 300 evacuation centres, according to officials.
Thai residents who fled their homes following clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers rest at an evacuation centre in Surin province, Thailand, Friday, July 25, 2025 [Sakchai Lalit/AP]
Reporting from Surin province, near the Cambodian border, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng said the government described the frontier as “very long and porous”, complicating efforts to track the movement of displaced people. “It is very hard to see how many people are here in the evacuation centre … because there are people arriving all the time,” he said.
Thai authorities say they are meeting the immediate needs of those seeking refuge, with food, water and medical care provided at the temporary shelters.
However, local accounts paint a grim picture. “Some of the older people that we have talked to said what they have seen in the last 48 hours, the fighting they’ve seen has been the fiercest in this disputed area since the late 1970s, when the Khmer Rouge had complete control of the other side of the border,” Cheng reported.
The violence, centred around a contested section of the Thai-Cambodian border, has prompted calls for calm from regional actors. “People are trying to talk down both sides, urging leaders to de-escalate,” Cheng added
UN to hold an emergency meeting
Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts claimed that Thailand’s strikes had caused “substantial damage” to the Preah Vihear temple, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site, according to The Phnom Penh Post.
Diplomatic sources told the AFP news agency that the United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the border fighting.
On Thursday, Thailand said it scrambled an F-16 fighter jet to bomb targets in Cambodia, while Cambodian forces launched long-range rockets towards civilian areas along the Thai border, Thailand’s military said.
Both countries have blamed each other for starting the clashes in a disputed area of the border, which quickly escalated from small arms fire to heavy shelling.
The United States, a longtime treaty ally of Thailand, has called for an immediate end to the hostilities.
China, a close ally of Cambodia, said it was deeply concerned about the ongoing conflict and hoped that both countries “will properly solve their dispute through dialogue and consultation”.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says Beijing is ready to play a constructive role in helping de-escalate tensions between Thailand and Cambodia.
“The root cause of this issue lies in the lingering consequences left by Western colonialists in the past, and it now needs to be faced calmly and handled properly,” he said during a meeting with ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn in Beijing, according to a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The territorial dispute between the two neighbours largely stems from a 1907 map drawn under French colonial rule, which was used to demarcate Cambodia’s boundary with Thailand.
Cambodia uses the map to support its claims, while Thailand argues that the map is inaccurate.
