Three Palestinian mourners were killed and 20 others wounded
Friday when an explosion hit a funeral procession for a Palestinian
Islamic Jihad militant killed during an Israeli airstrike, medics
said.
Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency services at Shifa
Hospital said that three were killed and 20 others wounded by an
explosion during the funeral dominated by noise and din in Gaza
City.
Hundreds of Islamic Jihad supporters gathered at Shifa Hospital
in Gaza City and carried the body of Khalil Al-Masar'a to Gaza
graveyard in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza, witnesses
said.
The Islamic Jihad militant and two Palestinian civilians were
killed during the Israeli airstrike on a car driving in Zeitoon
neighborhood in southern Gaza City on Thursday night.
During the funeral, which took to Gaza main streets, militants
fired into the air to salute al-Masar'a, said the witnesses, adding
that a big explosion took place when mourners carried the bodies on
their shoulders heading to the graveyard.
They said that the explosion was caused by a hand grenade of one
of the Islamic Jihad militants participating in the funeral, which
apparently fell on the ground and exploded.
But a Palestinian participant at the funeral gave another
version running contradictorily to the explanation of mishandling,
saying that the hand grenade was hurled by someone deliberately but
not fell unconsciously. He added that militants then opened fire
back after the bomb attack.
Hamas police said the incident was under investigation.
(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2007)
