Six people have been killed in an unexplained explosion in Gaza. Hamas has announced that the dead all were members of its military wing's forces, blaming the incident on Israel, which declined comment.
Six Hamas militants were killed and three injured on Saturday evening in a mysterious explosion at a house in the town of Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip. A statement from the Palestinian Islamist group's armed wing called the incident a "deplorable Zionist crime" perpetrated against its fighters.
"During a complicated security and intelligence operation conducted by Qassam Brigades to investigate a serious and a grave security incident conducted by the Zionist enemy against Palestinian resistance, a deplorable crime took place against our Mujahideen in the area of Zawayda in central Gaza Strip," it said.
A source close to Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said the six were all militants, who were members of the group's engineering unit.
The exact circumstances of the blast were unclear and Hamas, which is in control of the Gaza Strip, provided no further details. An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment on the incident, although a more junior official had earlier denied the Israeli army was involved. There was no immediate indication that the explosion was the result of an Israeli strike.
Explosions in the past in the Gaza Strip have resulted from the accidental detonation of explosive materials belonging to militant groups. (DW)