GAZA, May 11 — Nine Palestinians, including three children, were killed and many were injured on Monday evening in an explosion in the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, Xinhua news agency reported according to medical sources.
The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip said in a statement that the bodies of the nine people had been delivered to the main hospital in the town.
The reason for the explosion wasn’t immediately known, and the Hamas statement did not explicitly blame Israeli airstrikes for the deaths.
The explosion in northern Gaza coincided with a series of rockets fired by Gazan militants toward the Jerusalem area and southern Israel.
The Israeli military said at least six of the 45 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip were launched toward Jerusalem’s outskirts, where a house was hit.
At nightfall, the Israeli military carried out an airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip in response to the rockets attack.
Hamas militants claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, saying its military wing al-Qassam Brigades “struck occupied Jerusalem with a barrage of rockets.”
“Firing the rockets was a response to the occupier’s crimes and aggression against the holy city and harassing our people at Al-Aqsa Mosque and the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah,” said a masked spokesman.
The tension between Israelis and Palestinians has been flaring up over the past few days amid the escalating violence in East Jerusalem between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli forces.
Source: BERNAMA