A woman, three of her children and a nephew were killed today in an explosion when their donkey cart struck an Israeli landmine in the AlBoureij area of the central Gaza Strip, a Palestinian security source said.
However, the Israeli army denied the charges. The bodies were so badly mutiliated that it was difficult to count the dead, the source said.
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A Palestinian woman inspects damage to her house after it was attack by Israeli troops at Amari refugee camp in Ramallah Photo: Reuters
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A sixth person, another child in the cart, was seriously wounded in the blast and taken to hospital, the source said.
Zina al-Wawada (43) and three of her children aged between eight and 16, were killed, said Ahmed Rabah, director of the hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, where the bodies were taken.
The fifth victim was Wawada's six-year-old nephew, Khaled al-Wawada, Rabah said. It was unclear if the wounded child was part of the same family.
Khaled Abu el-Ula, the Palestinian representative on the joint committee with Israel for security in the southern Gaza Strip, told reporters the cart was blown up by a mine planted in a field by Israeli troops.
General Abdel Razaq al-Majaida, Palestinian security chief for the Gaza Strip, blamed this "new massacre" on the Israeli army.
"The forces of occupation committed today a new massacre of Palestinian civilians ... by planting mines near a Palestinian security post from which they withdrew this morning," he said.
For its part, an Israeli army spokesman said the landmine was "a bomb left by Palestinians to injure Israeli troops as they left the area in their armoured vehicles."
Two ultra-sophisticated Israeli Merkava tanks have been blown up by Palestinian bombs in the Gaza Strip in the last month, leaving a handful of dead.
Today's blast came hours after the Israeli army pulled out of Al-Boureij refugee camp, as well as a number of towns and cities in the West Bank, following its largest series of military operations in the Palestinian territories since the 1967 Middle East war.
Earlier three Palestinians, including two policemen, were killed by Israeli troops in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip.
The deaths bring the toll from the nearly 18-month-old Palestinian intifada, or uprising, to 1,538 people, including 1,190 Palestinians and 343 Israelis.
AFP