Foreign Ministry confirms Thai worker killed by rocket in Israel

BANGKOK, March 19 (TNA, Agencies) – Thailand’s Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed on Thursday that a Thai labourer was killed after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hits southern Israel.

Foreign Ministry’s information department deputy director-general Thani Thongphakdi confirmed that a Thai man working for the communal farm died in a rocket attack from a Palestinian group.

According to the lsraeli army spokeswoman, the rocket struck at the Netiv Ha’assera kibbutz, a few miles from the Gaza border.

Following three rocket attacks beginning Wednesday night, it was the first fatality from rocket fire since the end of the 22-day offensive against Gaza launched in December 2008.

Meanwhile, Mr Thani said that the Royal Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv has cooperated with the victim’s job placement company in order to transfer his body to Thailand.

The Thai Consular Department tried to contact the victim’s family living in the provinces, but Mr Thani declined to disclose the name of the Thai worker.

In response to the rocket fire, Israeli aircraft attacked at least six targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday, one day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian zone killed a Thai worker in Israel. The airstrikes wounded two people.

Israel also submitted a letter of complaint to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council, aiming to urge Mr Ban to call for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, arrested by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza in 2006.

Hamas has requested Israel free hundreds of the thousands of militants in its jails in exchange for the soldier. (TNA, Agencies)