At least ten Palestinians, including children have been killed in an explosion in Gaza during a rally for the Hamas militant group.
The blast occurred just hours after gunmen fired rockets into Israel in response to an army raid near the West Bank city of Tulkarm this morning which killed three people
The cause of the blast in Jabalya refugee camp was unclear and an Israeli army spokeswoman said there were no reports of military involvement. Palestinians lay injured on the ground, spattered with blood, and a car was found charred and gutted.
The explosion, which medics said also wounded several people, occurred after Gaza gunmen fired several rockets into Israel, in response to an Israeli arrest raid in the West Bank that killed three Palestinian militants.
It was the first deadly army raid since Israel completed its withdrawal of settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip on September 12th and pulled soldiers out of four northern West Bank enclaves this week.
Military sources said two militants were shot after they opened fire on troops while trying to flee arrest before dawn in the village of Illar outside Tulkarm. A third gunman who escaped was killed nearby in an exchange of fire, they said.
Israeli officials said the raid was aimed at capturing senior wanted Tulkarm-area members of Islamic Jihad which claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings in Israel this year that killed 10 Israelis in all and shook a fragile ceasefire.
Palestinian witnesses identified the dead as Jamil Abu Sada, Raed Ajaj and Saed al-Ashkar. Israeli troops arrested a wanted Islamic Jihad man in a separate raid into the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Yesterday, Israeli troops shot dead an unarmed Palestinian at an army base being dismantled in the area of abandoned Jewish northern West Bank settlements. The army said the Palestinian failed to heed orders to stop and the troops thought he might be a suicide bomber, a fear that proved unfounded.