Hamas claims responsibility for Kfar Darom infiltration

Jerusalem Post ^ | Oct. 6, 2004 | MARGOT DUDKEVITCH

[yonif]

A worker from Thailand was killed when three armed terrorists with explosives belts infiltrated the hothouses area of the Kfar Darom settlement in the central Gaza Strip Wednesday morning.

Troops that arrived at the scene killed the terrorists. Hamas claimed responsibility for the infiltration

In what IDF officers described as a combined infiltration-terror attack, which began at 10:30 a.m., the terrorists first fired an antitank rocket and mortar shell.

Several foreign workers from China and Thailand were working in the area at the time, building a new fence around the hothouses. The workers alerted the army, which arrived at the scene and extracted the workers from the danger zone.

As the three terrorists moved toward the hothouse area, a gunbattle ensued. One of the terrorists, who was wearing an explosives belt, was killed when his bomb blew up prematurely as he was shot at by IDF soldiers.

The other two terrorists managed to enter the hothouses area. Soon after one of them was killed by IDF gunfire.

The third terrorist entered the residency of the foreign workers near the hothouses, and held hostage a Thai worker who was in the structure at the time.

The Thai worker was critically wounded and bled for over an hour before troops managed to enter the house and treat him. He died of his wounds soon after.

The army said soldiers surrounded the house where the terrorist and Thai worker were holed up and shot and killed the terrorist. The IDF is seeking to determine if the Thai worker was shot by the terrorist or by the troops.

Officials said that the worker, who suffered fatal chest wounds, was wounded before the soldiers came into contact with the two remaining terrorists.

Kfar Darom residents, who in the morning were asked to remain in their houses while soldiers searched the area, were told they are allowed to leave their houses.

In June, a worker from Thailand was killed by a mortar round during a Palestinian attack on Kfar Darom.

The Thailand Ambassador in Tel Aviv said Wednesday that the day's events "confirm our conviction that it is dangerous for foreigners to be working in the Gaza Strip. We have been telling everyone that we don't want to see a second Thai worker killed – but it happened again, they just don't listen to us.

"There are many other places in Israel where foreign workers can work, not just Gaza," he said.

Th ambassador said he has been discussing with Foreign Ministry officials the possibility of evacuating the workers in Gaza Strip settlements prior to the implementation of the disengagement plan.

In light of Israel's plans to withdraw from Gaza, Thailand doesn't want to be seen as a foreign force that supports the Israeli presence in Gaza, he said.

[Spok]

"Hamas claimed responsibility for the infiltration"


You gotta love Hamas. The only thing you here from it is bragging about murdering civilians or whining about being targeted by the IDF. I guess it all makes sense to the American media.