Man killed by mortar fired from Gaza
by Dan Slobodkin
BREAKING NEWS – A Thai agricultural worker was killed on Thursday morning by a mortar shell that hit a greenhouse in a kibbutz neighboring the Gaza Strip. The man was fatally injured by the rocket strike. A Magen David Adom ambulance team arrived at the scene and rushed the man to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, where he died from his injuries.
IDF archive photo
Three hundred rockets have been fired at southern Israel since the end of Operation Cast Lead in January 2009, but today’s attack brought the first fatality.
An hour before the attack, the EU’s top diplomat, Baroness Catherine Ashton, crossed into the Strip to tour UN facilities and see how international funding was being used.
Speaking to reporters near the impact site, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Israel would not allow the Goldstone Report, which accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during last year’s bout of fighting, affect Israel’s defense strategy.
“With or without Goldstone, Israel will defend its citizens,” he said. “Today we see how absurd the Goldstone Report was.”
Asked whether recent tensions with the US over east Jerusalem construction could limit Israel’s ability to respond, Ayalon said, “We have never asked anyone’s permission to defend ourselves, and we will proceed in a similar fashion.”
On Wednesday night, a Kassam rocket hit an open field north of Sderot. No injuries or damage was reported.
In an earlier incident the same evening, a Kassam rocket was fired at the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, along with two more rockets on Tuesday. No injuries or damages were reported regarding these rocket firings.
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