50 injured in blast in northern Gaza

Around 50 Palestinians were injured on Thursday in an explosion at one of the training facilities belonging to Palestinian militants in northern Gaza Strip, medics and security officials said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, Gaza health ministry spokesman, told Xinhua that about 50 people got various serious and moderate injuries in a huge explosion in a military training facility at al-Atatra area in northern Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, officials of the Gaza Interior Ministry, said the explosion occurred when explosives experts were trying to defuse an non-detonated Israeli F16 missile, which had suddenly exploded and wounded 50 people.

Al-Qedra said the casualties were taken to the hospitals in northern Gaza Strip and Gaza city, declining to give more details.

Witnesses said they heard a huge explosion that wrecked the area of al-Atartra, adding that an Israeli missile which did not exploded during last summer's Israeli war in Gaza exploded suddenly in the area.

They noted that the Israeli missile exploded while militants were trying to defuse it at a Hamas movement's training facility, known as "Salatin Training position," in the west of Beit Lahia town in northern Gaza.

Ambulances and firefighters arrived at the scene, while security forces prevented journalists and civilians from approaching the place.

In last July, Israel waged a 50-day large-scale military air and ground operation on Gaza Strip militant groups, firing tens of thousands of missiles and tanks shells on the coastal enclave and killing more than 2,000 Palestinians.

The security forces and armed groups in Gaza warned that several Israeli rockets and missiles were still unexploded and it will be dangerous to touch or play with these objects.
Source: XINHUA