Thai workers are safe in Israel : Israeli envoy

Some 800 Thai Muslims who demonstrated in front of the Israeli Embassy yesterday warned of "unexpected" incidents around the world unless Israel ceased Operation Cast Lead against Palestine.

The Israeli Defence Force opened the operation against the Hamas on December 27 to end rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.

Some one million Israeli civilians living in the southern part of the coun¬try have been suffering from the Hamas' onandoff rocket attacks for seven years.

"They are suffering day after day and night after night from rockets launched on Israel," Rubinstein said.

The operation was also aimed at stopping the smuggling of weapons and explosive materials to be used by the Hamas against Israel, she said.

The strike, however, focused only on the Gaza Strip where no Thais were working, she said.

Most of the Thai workers were in the eastern part of the country, which is far from the war zone.

The Foreign Ministry said earlier that some 3,000 Thai workers are in the risky area of Eshkol near the Gaza.

In Bangkok, the Thai Muslim group staged a twohour rally to demand an end to the operation.

They wore Tshirts with the message "Stop Gaza Slaughter" and waved banners saying "Boycott Israel" and "Israel is the Real Terrorist".

They were the second group to call a protest against Israel after a smaller group rallied at the embassy on Monday.

Rubinstein was confident that authorities here could provide suffi¬cient security for the embassy staff and Israeli citizens in Thailand.

She urged Thailand and the international community to understand the situation as well as the suffering of the Israeli people.

Noam Badin, an Israeli civilian, spoke via teleconference from his shelter in the southern city of Shedlot to recount his daily suffering from the Hamas rocket attacks.

The bombs exploded in many pub¬lic places even near kindergarten schools, he told reporters at the news briefing yesterday. 

More than 7,500 Hamas missiles and rockets have landed in Shedlot city alone over the past seven years.

In spite of the ongoing ground operation against Palestine, a total of 478 rockets were launched from Gaza at southern Israel since the beginning of the operation, Rubinstein added.