The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Gaza City

A powerful blast went off in the house of a senior Islamic Jihad activist Friday, killing him, his wife, three sons and three neighbors, medics and an Islamic Jihad spokesman said.

Islamic Jihad claimed Israeli warplanes struck the home of Ayman Atallah Fayed. Israel denied it had launched any airstrike in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza where Fayed lived. Hamas police said the cause of the blast was not clear.

Witnesses reported seeing fragments of what looked like locally produced rockets at the scene, suggesting the house may have been used to store arms.

Islamic Jihad said Fayed was among the dead, and that the group would carry out reprisal attacks against Israel.

Fayed was a senior member of the Islamic Jihad military wing. Israel routinely targets top militants in airstrikes but Israel denied any such strike on Friday.

The three-story house was flattened by the blast and six nearby homes were badly damaged, witnesses said. At least 40 people were hurt. One of Fayed's daughters and 11 others were in critical condition. The Israeli aircraft targeted the home of top Islamic Jihad militant Ayman al-Fayed in the Bureij Palestinian refugee camp south of Gaza City, killing him and two of his children, a boy and a girl, they said.

A woman was among the other four dead, the medics said, adding that the fate of Fayed's wife and three other children was not known. A military spokeswoman denied Israeli forces had attacked the house.

Around 50 people, including around 20 children, were wounded when the building was hit by a missile, the Palestinian medics added. Most were family members.