Four Palestinians killed in blast
2004-07-10 19:44
Gaza City - Three Palestinian militants in a car were killed on Saturday along with a passer-by when the vehicle exploded near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said.
Security sources named the armed militants who were killed as Hassan Abu Dalal, Mohammed Abu Zur and Mahmud Abu Namus, all aged around 20.
The three militants belonged to the Popular Resistance Committees, which is made up mostly of members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah faction.
The passer-by killed was a cyclist, while another three people were also wounded, one of them seriously, medics said.
There was confusion over the cause of the blast.
The Palestinian security sources initially said the militants' car took a direct hit from an Israeli tank, but local residents said it was a rocket fired by an Israeli helicopter.
An Israeli military spokesperson denied any Israeli fire in the sector at the time of the incident, saying the blast was probably caused by one of the militants accidentally detonating an explosive device they were transporting.
A spokesperson for the Popular Resistance Committees, meanwhile, said the car was booby-trapped and the bomb detonated by remote-control from an Israeli helicopter overhead.
The latest deaths brought the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, to 4 176, including 3 180 Palestinians and 925 Israelis, according to an AFP count.