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Gaza: An explosion destroyed a Hamas bomb-maker's house in the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing six fighters and a four-month-old baby, emergency services said, raising the toll from four.
The explosion, which also wounded about 50 people, destroyed the two-storey dwelling and damaged several other homes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, an area from which fighters frequently fire rockets into southern Israel.
Hamas said an Israeli aircraft attacked the house belonging to Ahmad Hamouda, whom it described as one of its senior bomb-makers. An Israeli military spokeswoman denied any Israeli involvement.
Fate unknown
"It was not related to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces). There were no IDF operations. It was an internal explosion," an Israeli military spokeswoman said in Tel Aviv.
Hamouda's fate was not immediately known.
"The Beit Lahiya massacre was caused by an Israeli strike that targeted a Qassam leader," Hamas said in a statement, referring to its armed wing.
Major Avital Leibovich, an Israeli army spokeswoman, said: "Our air forces and land forces did not act in that area at that time."
Hamas fired more than 50 rockets and mortar bombs at Israel after the explosion. Israeli medical workers said at least one person was wounded.
"The Zionist enemy must not dream of winning calm when it bombs houses and brings them down on the heads of their inhabitants," Hamas official Mushir Al Masri said in Beit Lahiya.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian fighters near a border crossing with the Gaza Strip, medical workers said. Gunmen from Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and another group attacked an Israeli army position near the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, the groups said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops crossed into Gaza after seeing fighters planting explosive devices near the border fence. The troops shot two of the fighters, she said.
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