Gaza City blast kills 2 Palestinians suspected of mishandling explosives

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza announced that an explosion had killed two residents in an incident suggestive of mishandled explosive material.

By: World Israel News Staff

Two Palestinians were killed and eight others injured on Saturday night by an explosion that rocked a structure in Shejaiya, a neighborhood in Gaza City.

While the precise cause of the blast was not immediately announced, early suggestions indicate it was produced by explosive material that had been mishandled.

Local media reports referred to Saturday’s explosion as occurring at a house in the astern neighborhood of Shejaeya, while other reports identified the blast location as a fireworks workshop, according to AP.

The Hamas terrorist group that oversees the territory issued no immediate comment, and Israeli involvement is not being considered as a factor in the incident.

Fatal accidents such as this in the Gaza Strip are not uncommon, as Hamas relies on weapons manufacturing and storage facilities that are housed in civilian locations.

Hamas has also been caught burying caches of arms and explosives under its kindergarten playgrounds, according to a US State Department report.

This practice is consistent with Hamas’ longstanding use of human shields and the incidents in which it has been caught housing weapons in at least three United Nations schools.

In April, similar “work accidents” occurred in Gaza. For example, Hamas terrorist Mohammed Nimer Al-Maqadmeh was killed in an explosion that injured three others, including a child believed to be Al-Maqadmeh’s son.

Al-Maqadmeh was suspected of preparing an explosive charge to be detonated against IDF forces on patrol in the area.

About one week earlier, four Palestinian terrorists were killed in Gaza when the vehicle they were riding in exploded, the apparent result of a terror-related explosive charge that went off prematurely.