Ganei Tal, Gaza Strip – A mortar shell fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza struck a greenhouse in the Israeli settlement of Ganei Tal on Tuesday, killing three workers and wounding five more.
The dead were two Palestinians and a Chinese laborer, and the wounded were Palestinians from Khan Younis.
Two were injured seriously, two moderately and one slightly. They were taken to an Israeli hospital in Beersheva for treatment.
Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the attack, calling it retaliation for the death of Palestinians, including one of its commanders, at the hands of Israeli forces.
The killings of the workers here and of the Islamic Jihad commander in Jenin, along with a shower of mortars and rockets against Israeli civilians, were vivid signs of the fraying cease-fire, or “calm,” between Palestinian militants and the Israelis brokered by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met with security officials Tuesday to discuss how to respond to the new spate of violence, and he scheduled a meeting Tuesday night with Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Youssef.
Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian minister, said: “The situation is deteriorating. The whole cease-fire may collapse.”
But the new Israeli chief of staff urged calm. “Ignoring it isn’t the plan,” said Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz. “We will evaluate this for the long-term. There is no doubt our patience will wear out. When will that happen? That’s up to us, given the situation.”
Amnon Ditur, the owner of the greenhouse, rushed there when he got a call, and said he was unable to tell the dead from the wounded. “I saw it was a terror attack,” he said later. “I called the ambulance.”
The mortar that killed the workers was one of a series of mortar and rocket attacks on the Gaza settlement and the nearby Israeli town of Sederot by Palestinian militants belonging mostly to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Most of the mortars and rockets landed harmlessly or only damaged property.
Hamas said it was firing in retaliation for an episode in Jerusalem on Monday at the holy site called the Noble Sanctuary by Muslims and the Temple Mount by Jews.