Despite a Gazan mortar shell exploding in an open field near the Eshkol Regional Council Area on Thursday morning, October 25, a tense quiet prevailed in southern Israel as an informal cease-fire brokered by Egypt appeared to be holding, The Jerusalem Post reported. The cease-fire followed two days of intense violence which saw some eighty rockets and mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip into the western Negev. Late Wednesday night, a Palestinian official said Egypt was mediating a truce which he said went into effect at midnight. No rocket fire or Israeli Air Force strikes on Gaza were reported overnight. Earlier Wednesday, two Thai workers were severely wounded and a third was lightly wounded by a rocket strike on a chicken coop in the Eshkol region, and three Israelis were hospitalized for shock.