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ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-CONFLICT-GAZA-ACCIDENT
More than 20 injured by blast in Gaza home
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, Jan 23, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – More than 20
people were injured and several homes destroyed by a large explosion Saturday
in a residential area of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials
said.
The source of the accidental explosion was apparently the home of a member
of one of Gaza’s armed groups.
“An explosion occurred in a house in Beit Hanoun this morning, resulting in
a number of injuries,” the interior ministry said, adding that an
investigation had been launched into the cause of the blast.
Medical sources said more than 20 people were injured, two of them
seriously.
Witnesses said several homes were damaged as a result of the explosion in
the home of an “activist”. Police cordoned off the area.
There was no immediate official explanation of the explosion, but the
Israeli military said it was the result of militants “storing weapons in
residential homes”.
Houses “have been turned into warehouses for weapons… and missiles for
terrorist organisations, and those who pay the price in the end are innocent
civilians,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on
Twitter.
Islamist group Hamas seized control of Gaza from rival Palestinian movement
Fatah in a near civil war in 2007.
Since then, Hamas has fought three devastating wars with Israel, which has
maintained a crippling blockade on the territory of some two million people.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1728 hrs