Blast kills 10 Palestinians at Hamas rally in Gaza

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – An explosion at a militant Hamas rally
killed at least 10 Palestinians, including children and gunmen,
in the Gaza Strip on Friday in the first deadly incident in the
territory since Israel completed its withdrawal.

Hamas accused Israel of attacking the procession of
military vehicles and thousands of marchers chanted for
revenge.

But the Israeli army denied any involvement in the
explosion, hours after Islamic Jihad militants fired rockets
into Israel in retaliation for a deadly West Bank raid.

At least two children were among the dead in the explosion
at the rally in the densely packed Jabalya refugee camp, a show
of armed force by Hamas following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza
on September 12 after 38 years of occupation.

“I was thrown several metres, then I looked behind and I
saw people dismembered and lying on the ground dead,” said one
witness.

The incident could stoke militant anger that was already
boiling after Israeli troops killed three Islamic Jihad
militants in a raid in the West Bank city of Tulkarm.

Senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan, whose brother, a local
commander for the group, died in the blast, said Israel had
targeted a vehicle carrying five Hamas gunmen.

He said that while Hamas would continue to honor an
eight-month ceasefire it had agreed to in February by request
of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, it would still respond
to Israeli attacks against Palestinians.

“We know that our criminal enemy killed our sons today,”
Rayan told reporters. “We will continue in the footsteps of the
martyrs until we liberate our land and until we remove every
last single Israeli soldier from our land.”

HAMAS DENIES VEHICLE CARRIED EXPLOSIVES

About 60 people were wounded, medics said, and the blast
wrecked the Hamas vehicle. Rayan denied reports that it had
carried explosives, saying the vehicle only contained plastic
models of rockets that could not detonate.

Hours before the blast, militants from Islamic Jihad fired
rockets from northern Gaza into Israel, the first such attack
since the withdrawal, in response to an Israeli raid in the
West Bank that killed three of its gunmen. It caused no
casualties.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the West Bank
raid, calling it a “very dangerous step.” Palestinian leaders
have said such attacks jeopardize a February ceasefire deal and
efforts to restart peace talks.

Palestinians are still celebrating Israel’s withdrawal from
Gaza, which Washington hopes could be a step to reviving a
stalled peace “road map.”

Hours before the blast, Palestinian authorities took charge
of a border crossing for the first time, processing thousands
of travelers from Gaza into Egypt following Israel’s pullout.

Israel had sealed the Rafah terminal, Gaza’s sole conduit
to the outside world via Egypt, before completing its removal
of forces, saying it would be shut for six months pending
renovations and proof Palestinians could rein in Gaza
militants.

But with Israel’s consent, the crossing was opened on
Friday for 48 hours to Palestinians who study, work or need
medical treatment in Egypt or elsewhere.

“This is my happiest day ever,” said Samar Salem, 16. “We
are very happy not to see any Jews in the crossing. For the
first time, we are coming to the crossing and we are not afraid
to be denied access.”

Palestinians hope Gaza will become the embryo of a state in
the territories Israel captured in the 1967 war. They want
their state to include the larger West Bank and Arab East
Jerusalem.

travelers at Rafah had to produce a Palestinian identity
card or foreign passport to prevent a repeat of a chaotic
deluge of Gazans into Egypt in the first days after the
pullout.

(Writing by Corinne Heller in Jerusalem, additional
reporting by Tom Perry in Cairo)