12:29pm UK, Thursday March 18, 2010

Lulu Sinclair, Sky News Online

A man has been killed in Israel in a rocket attack fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip.

The dead man was a farm worker from Thailand who was working on the Netiv Ha’assera kibbutz, near the border, an Israeli emergency services official said.

It is the first such death in Israel since the country’s offensive against Gaza in January of last year.

Sky News Middle East correspondent Dominc Waghorn said: “The mortar hit near a greenhouse and it killed the man outright.

“It is one of five missiles that have been sent out of Gaza since last night.

Israeli emergency services at the scene

“It seems likely that Israel will retaliate because it takes injuries or deaths very seriously.”

A previously unknown group in the Gaza Strip calling itself Ansar al-Sunna (Followers of the Sunnis) says it carried out the attack.

Its name is one which is also used by al Qaeda allies in Iraq and elsewhere, indicating that the group belongs to a hardline group challenging the ruling Hamas.

“You have to talk about this claim cautiously,” said Dominic Waghorn, “as many groups who claim to have carried out attacks are not the ones who actually did.

Israeli soldiers walk towards the Gaza border

“But what we know about this group is that it is one of the fringe groups affiliated to or inispired by al Qaeda.

“That would be bad for Hamas because it means people are increasingly growing disenchanted with Hamas, believing it is not Islamist enough.”

Hamas has been trying to enforce an informal ceasefire between Israel and the territory.

Thursday’s attack came on the same day as a visit to Gaza by Europe’s top diplomat, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the first such visit in more than a year.

Lady Ashton had just crossed into Gaza when the attack took place.