A powerful explosion ripped through a Hamas Kassam rocket training site in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Ma'an news agency reported.
In a statement Hamas did not give a cause for the blast in the town of Rafah. The Israeli military said it wasn't involved, which suggests that the explosion was an accident.
RELATED:'Blast result of jihad op preparation'Hamas gunman killed in Gaza explosion The blast shook through the densely crowded Tel As-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah. Hamas said thirteen people were injured during the explosion, including five children and three women, all by flying glass shrapnel.
Ambulance crews arrived on the scene to evacuate the injured to Abu
Yousef An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, said Gaza medical services spokesman
Adham Abu Silmiyya.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights has repeatedly called
on the territory's Hamas rulers not to store explosive materials in
civilian areas. It said a similar explosion in August wounded 58 people
and destroyed seven houses.