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Dec. 14, 2004
Thai worker killed in mortar attack on Gush Katif settlement
MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
A Palestinian mortar attack on the Gush Katif settlement of Ganei Tal killed a 20-year-old foreign worker from Thailand and wounded two other workers early Tuesday evening, when a mortar shell exploded near a storeroom in the settlement’s hothouse area.
A second mortar shell exploded next to an IDF post located nearby.
In total, six mortar shells were fired at Israeli settlements in Gush Katif, and two more were fired at IDF posts and settlements in the northern Gaza Strip, during the day.
The Palestinian mortar attacks continue despite the presence of IDF troops on the outskirts of the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip since Friday. The troops took up positions on the outskirts of the camp in an effort to halt the attacks on Gush Katif and nearby IDF posts.
Overnight Monday, infantry, engineering and armored units entered the outskirts of the refugee camp and demolished a number of empty structures which the army said were used by Palestinians to fire mortars and Kassam rockets. The troops left the area early Tuesday morning and resumed positions overlooking the camp.
Palestinians reported that 10 homes were destroyed in the operation, and claimed that soldiers evacuated residents before demolishing the structures.
Since the beginning of November, more than 80 mortar shells and Kassam rockets have been fired at Gush Katif settlements and communities in the western Negev, including more than 25 in the past week.
The Tuesday attack occurred shortly after 5 p. m., with an explosion near a storeroom where a group of Thai workers had gathered. A female worker was standing outside the building when the mortar shell exploded was critically wounded, and two other workers inside the building were lightly wounded by shrapnel.
The woman’s husband immediately contacted his employer and then drove his wounded wife to the employer’s house seeking help. Minutes later, medics reached the scene and began treating the woman. However, she succumbed to her wounds inside the Air Force helicopter that was transporting her to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba. The two other workers were brought to the hospital by ambulance.
Gaza Coast Regional Council spokesman Eran Sternberg said that residents of Gush Katif called on OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel to immediately implement Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s orders that the army act to stop the mortar attacks.
At the time of the mortar attack in Ganei Tal, soldiers deployed along the Philadelphi Route near the Egyptian border spotted three Palestinians crawling toward the route and shot them. The IDF Spokesman said the three had entered a restricted area, and soldiers opened fire because they feared the men were planning to attack them or smuggle weapons from Egypt back into the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians reported that one Palestinian Authority policeman was killed and two others were wounded by IDF machine gun fire as they walked along a street in nearby Rafah.
The IDF Spokesman denied the report.
On Tuesday morning, a soldier was lightly wounded by shrapnel from a mortar shell that exploded outside an IDF base near the northern Gaza Strip security fence.
In the West Bank on Tuesday, security forces operating sealed the offices of the Islamic Charity Association (dawa) in Dura, west of Hebron, that is affiliated with Hamas. The office allegedly used monetary donations to support terrorist activities and the families of suicide bombers.
In Hebron itself, security forces demolished the homes of Hamas fugitives alleged to have been involved in numerous shootings in the area.
Before dawn, security forces arrested five Palestinian fugitives in raids in Silat A Haramiya northwest of Jenin, Salem north of Nablus, and in Hebron.
Separately, the IDF released details of the discovery of a seven-kilogram bomb at the Hawara checkpoint outside of Nablus on Sunday.
Tipped off to plans to smuggle a bomb through the checkpoint for a suicide bombing in Israel, soldiers found the bomb hidden inside a double floor built underneath one of the trucks waiting to pass through the checkpoint. The bomb was inside a school bag that had been placed in a cupboard inside the concealed space.
The truck driver apparently was not aware of the bomb’s existence.
Within hours, security forces arrested Hashem Shuweike of A-Ram, north of Jerusalem, who sheltered the would-be suicide bomber and was to have received the bomb.
The planner of the attack was found to be Tanzim member Omad Jamil Fokkha, from Nablus, who had been the deputy of Majdi Marai until Marai was killed by security forces last month. In July, Marai recruited a suicide bomber and used the same method — concealment in a truck without the driver’s knowledge — to transport the bomb. Both the suicide bomber and his transporter were arrested before they could carry out the attack.
In Memoriam
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