Gaza bombers die in own goal blast

An explosion, apparently triggered prematurely by militants making a bomb, tore through a house in Gaza today, killing three people.

Elsewhere, Israeli troops exchanged fire with gunmen, killing one Palestinian.

The violence came on the ninth anniversary of the historic September 13 1993 handshake between the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that sealed a breakthrough agreement of mutual recognition.

That deal produced several interim peace accords but a poll today showed that 79% of Israelis believe the interim agreements, which led to Israel’s withdrawal from most Palestinian population centres, are no longer valid.

In the Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, a powerful explosion ripped through a two storey house , killing three members of the same family. One was a member of Arafat’s Fatah movement, and another belonged to the militant Islamic Jihad group. Four people were wounded in the blast.

Police said they didn’t know what caused the blast, but residents said they believed people inside may have been preparing a bomb that accidentally went off.

In the West Bank town of Hebron, Israeli forces traded fire with Palestinians and besieged an empty building.

Earlier in the day, gun battles broke out in the town of Rafah and a nearby refugee camp, on the Egyptian border. A gunman from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, linked to Fatah, was killed and six other people were injured.

Israeli forces also badly damaged six metal workshops and 20 houses, Palestinians said, leaving families homeless.